Welcome Back Sailors – (Love) That’s All (Crash Symbols, 2012)

Welcome Back Sailors – (Love) That’s All
Crash Symbols 2012

Welcome Back Sailors is the duo of Danilo Incerti and Alessio Artoni based in Italy. “Stronger” is a real slow dance of a tune, with a down tempo drum machine. Slightly cheesy synths drift in and out of chords joined by melodramatic vocals. “(Love) That’s All” has a similar psychedelic pop style and instrumentation. There’s a thumping bass riff that makes the piece a bit groovier, kind of like a slowed-down funk/soul track. The vocals throughout the tape remind me of Ariel Pink. “Flesh & Blood” is dancier, with an up-tempo drum machine and arpeggiating synths pulsating about. “Stronger (Keep Shelly in Athens Remix)” brings out the old school, r&b aesthetics in the vocals, maybe emphasized by the drum machine. “Stronger (His Clancyness Cover)” is a rock interpretation of the piece, with rock instrumentation, maintaining the down tempo quality and emphatically emotional vocals. “Flesh & Blood (Death in Plains Remix)” is a dancier and heavier mix than the original. When it is just the vocals and the lightly bouncing synths I dig it the most.