Album Review: Remembrance of Things To Come by Princeton

With their sunny disposition, eclectic-yet-traditional instrumentation and clever lyrical allusions, it was nearly impossible for Princeton’s 2009 debut, Cocoon of Love, to escape superficial comparisons to the work of a certain New York band that doesn’t care for the oxford comma. But they can bid those days farewell as they usher in the release of their sophomore record, Remembrance of Things to Come. Keeping the sugary pop that defined their first album in check, the Los Angeles–based four-piece has recreated themselves by reworking the classical elements engrained in their sound, mixing in dance-y beats (no doubt influenced by Jesse Kivel’s disco-driven side project Kisses) and using it all to craft layers of sonic texture.

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There might not be a nerdier band name/album name combination than Princeton‘s Remembrance of Things to Come. L.A.-based identical twin brothers Jesse and Matt Kivel (no relation to this writer) filled their second album with a batch of similarly smart, quirky indie pop, complete with help from the orchestral seven-piece Los Angeles New Music Ensemble. While their last album (2009’s Cocoon of Love) surrounded itself in the buzz swarm of Vampire Weekend’s world music peddling, the dominance of keys and strings places the four-piece into a clever new niche, one somewhere between synth rock and theatric indie pop.

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PrincetonRemembrance of Things to Come[Hit City U.S.A. / Easter Everywhere; 2012]By Andrew Halverson; February 24, 2012Purchase at: Insound (Vinyl) | Amazon (MP3 & CD) | iTunes | MOGThough Princeton is a SoCal band, they've spread themselves through a sense of East Coast beach music that takes a larger presence than anything of the Southern California vein. Sure, the rhythm of songs like "Grand Rapids" is relative to perhaps walking on the sands of Venice Beach, but location distinguishing is of little importance to the group's vitality and especially how much of a weak affair Remembrance of Things to Come is.

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For their second full-length, Remembrance of Things oo Come, Princeton changed their approach. In an interview with Spinner, keyboardist Ben Usen described Princeton’s first album, Cocoon of Love, as “claustrophobic and congested”. To move in a new direction, the group “stripped it down and tried to focus on certain melodies and stick with those and put those in the front.” In addition, while on tour for Cocoon of Love, the band purportedly fell in love with disco and attempted to incorporate some its tropes into their songwriting.

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