Hyperion

Anyone familiar with Brooklyn's St. Lucia know that they do '80s-style synth-pop with an enthusiasm and production sophistication that would make even the most cynical club kid take notice. With their third studio album, 2018's Hyperion, they blow out their big '80s and '90s pop influences with a sleek, dayglow production that shimmers with bright liquid detail. It's a sound the band has been championing since their debut, and which reached an apex on their hooky sophomore album, 2016's Matter. Based around longtime creative and romantic partners, singer/multi-instrumentalist Jean-Philip Grobler and singer/keyboardist Patti Beranek, St. Lucia make the kind of infectious, melodic pop that wouldn't sound out of place in a classic John Hughes film of the 1980s. All this remains true here, and gains added studio punch via producer Rob Kirwan, who has previously helmed albums by U2, Depeche Mode, and Simple Minds. With Kirwan, St. Lucia take their hot-pink bike shorts and classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer aesthetic even further with arrangements and songs that evoke many of the artists that have influenced them. Tracks like "Bigger," "Paradise Is Waiting," and "Walking Away," are buoyant anthems, rife with fizzy synth and piano riffs, stadium-sized programmed drum beats, and outsized melodies that stick in your head for days. Elsewhere, without ever straying too far from originality, they seem to be repurposing specific grooves from old songs -- like mashing up Genesis' "Invisible Touch" with Wham's "Everything She Wants" to create their own catchy "Gun." Elsewhere, "Last Dance" pleasantly brings to mind Songs from the Big Chair-era Tears for Fears, while "Brighter Love" sounds improbably like Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love" if produced by Human League. What's particularly compelling about St. Lucia's vintage approach to pop on Hyperion is just how fresh it continues to sound. ~ Matt Collar