windmill - puddle city racing lights

Talk about a breath of fresh air. Windmill is Matthew Thomas Dillon, and Puddle City Racing Lights is a beautiful, big ball of sunshine and syrupy-sweet tunes; it’s like riding an indie-rock rainbow. The sounds that Dillon puts together switch quite easily from intimate, close atmospheres of quiet piano to large, lush blooming music that can’t quite be contained. The lyrics don’t always make perfect sense, but you’ll still be singing along to them immediately, like these from “Tokyo Moon”: “You never thought / You never would / The drugs were doing things you already could…So Rachel packed it all away / And I think it was a museum / Experiments were conducted that day / The Tokyo moon is out of reach / Falling out of love can breach your world / And the boundaries of your friends’ worlds.” Dillon’s high-pitched voice is perfect accompanying this music, bringing the listener along the troughs and crests. The songs are orchestra-like walls of sound, reminiscent of the arrangements of Arcade Fire, the Flaming Lips, and Mercury Rev—with joyous ovations applied liberally throughout. It’s wonderful to discover someone who can channel such strong influences into good, original songs.

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