Coming out on the now excruciatingly hip CarPark label (home of Beach House, Panda Bear and so many more exciting folk) 'Going Places' has an utterly irresistible (and very long) list of contributors, we've got M83, Ghislain Poirier, Final Fantasy, Beach House, Au Revoir Simone, ISAN, Vitaminsforyou and many many more, in fact there's so many guest appearances it could almost be a mid 90s hiphop album. This is no bad thing though, Bedard knows how to harness the talents of his collaborators, and 'Going Places' is a surprisingly coherent album. The first thing you will notice is Bedard's very defined production, everything is beautifully noise-laden, reverential maybe to that dreamy shoegaze sound of old, but not in a way typically taken on by M83 or Mr. Schnauss. Rather Bedard pushes shoegaze into very typically 'electro' production, ending up with something that sounds like Stereolab by way of My Bloody Valentine - hardly a sound to shy away from. This is playful music, and totally unashamed in its fun and summer sentiment - you can see why he managed to convince so many of his friends to join in, it was likely one big party at the Montag studio. Okay so it's not the most original album you're going to find, but if you're desperate for some pure analogue pop music this summer to accompany a glass of lemonade, I think you've found it. Lovely!
