The Jameses - Haunted Rider on Mayo Factory

I've been listening to The Jameses based on Captured Tracks glowing mention of getting copies of this single to sell from Mayo Factory...and it's weird. At points on 'A Haunted Rider', they sound like something between Belle and Sebastian and The Clinic...a sort of bouncy English ....(what the fuck was the period in England, like the Happy Mondays shit? It wasn't shoegaze? New Romantic? Fuck it, it was terrible) It's not reminding me of that...but it's working in a lot of different ways. Sort of dance-y even, the electronics are deliberately obscure...maybe even outdated. It's got the jangly guitars....maybe it's the vocals, the layers of harmony and the jangle of the guitar but I'm getting an electronic Shins sort of a feel.
It's a weird one to pin down.
Something like Gual Lo, has such weird electronics that it's like early...and I'm going English again....Human League....but probably how they sounded to someone back then when they were in the middle of it. but it's modern, Crystal Castles overwhelming glitchy sounding, but then with that real simple almost background vocal style...it's a good contrast to the dense dancefloor soundtrack. They literally play a scale of notes up the keyboard in a way that doesn't sound ridiculous. But then the '5th Dimension', gets all Neon Indian...and raves out.
I'm tempted to give this a chance based on the fact that Captured tracks hasn't ever steered me wrong yet...and they have a full length scheduled with these guys so I know it's true love.

Captured Tracks says:

Captured Tracks is in love with The Jameses, we were lucky enough to secure copies of their self-released debut 7". It's bright, slightly psychedelic pop that has it's own feel, a lot of things come to mind, but check their MySpace to draw your own comparisons ("To The Shores of Lake Placid" maybe?).

"Lo and behold, it, like everywhere else, has plenty of varied strains of underground digging up towards the sun simultaneously and if the ones who've shown up with their bathing suits and sun screen are a sign, then let's jump the gun and call this the summer of Florida, even though their seasonal variations are ambiguous at best. So far, we've gone out on a limb for Jacuzzi Boys and Lil Daggers and Matrix Infinity, and now we'd like to throw another branch out for the breezy garage pop of The Jameses.

If this is the sound of West Palm Beach, I'm ready to retire." -Impose

Or the Jameses themsleves say:

The Jameses debut 7 inch on mayo factory. $6ppd. Send payment to threeheadedlion(at)gmail.com as a personal payment.