Aero Flynn – 'Aero Flynn' review
It's fortunate for Aero Flynn that neither Radiohead nor Bon Iver have released a note of music for over four years - so indebted is Flynn’s debut to the most recent work of both groups that it makes for an ideal stopgap until Messrs Yorke, Greenwood, Vernon et al administer their next dose of ethereally elegiac paranoid melancholia: across Aero Flynn’s crisply pressed 43 minutes, the treated keyboards, microblasts of fractured blues and pedal-steel yearning of Justin Vernon mingle among Radiohead’s trademark cut-up percussion, cleanly spiralling guitar lines and fluttering, fragile vocals like mash-up culture reimagined for cerebral post-millennial indie-rock.
On one level, these are unequivocally elegant, intricately constructed and engaging songs in their own right, played with impressive technicality and produced with no little flair, and Flynn’s ear for a melody and arrangement is enviable. However, no music exists in a vacuum, and Aero Flynn’s transparent indebtedness to such overbearing giants renders his debut like a waxwork: the likeness is uncanny, but the gravitas doesn’t linger.
6/10
