VERONICA FALLS : CD S/T

The very best pop music mixes sweetness and light with dissonance and darkness, injects a perfectly addictive harmony with something sadder, stranger. Think of the gloomy melodrama of “Tell Laura I Love Her,” which kickstarted the “teenage tragedy song” craze in the ’60s, the bleak farewell of “Seasons in the Sun” in the ’70s, even The Smiths’ “Girlfriend in a Coma” in the ’80s—all meltingly beautiful melodies with something considerably darker lurking at their hearts; the black cloud on a summer’s day, the bruise on a perfect face. It’s into this long and storied lineage that London four-piece Veronica Falls quite happily fit. “We love bands like Beat Happening, Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500 and Felt, but we also love over-emotionalism,” says drummer Patrick Doyle. “We all originally bonded over the sinister sides to love songs from the ’50s and ’60s.” Welcome to the slanted and enchanted world of Veronica Falls, where serendipity, subversion, providence and a shared love for Roky Erickson’s worldview all play a crucial part.