[Introducing] – Chalk And Numbers

Admittedly, I welcome when a song opens up my memory bank, overloading my senses with nostalgic associations. This new tune becomes a snowball of time and space that makes me spew more references than I know what to do with – if you haven’t yet noticed. Yet to stick, it’s got to do more than just evoke memories of things past.

Andrew Pierce and Sable Yong of  Chalk And Numbers make songs that are reminiscent of the ’60s pop psychedelia of their influences – think Beach Boys for sure, and throw in a little Strawberry Alarm Clock for good measure. Ms. Yong is an interesting frontwoman, her voice very reminiscent of the dreamgirls that ruled the pop charts more than five decades ago (Carole King, The Shirelles). Yet she has a nervousness, an endearing nervousness that is not coy, but impossible to replicate and takes the songs further from pure nostalgia tripping. I like her voice imperfect, prefer it with the instrumentation, as the worst thing that can happen here is for everything to become the pretty baroque wallpaper it teeters on.

Their latest “He Knew” EP is a sweet taste of what this Brooklyn duo do, ranging from the ’60s psych pop reminiscent like the opener “He Knew”, where Ms. Yong delivers with all the power of Colin Blunstone of The Zombies (they actually do a cover of “Whenever You’re Ready“) to more saccharine fare comparable to She & Him (“Let’s Go Away”). Chalk And Numbers thankfully veer slightly left of the wonderfully formulaic female driven pop songs that defined these eras past. Instead, they deliver their songs with a masculinity that retains a sense of vulnerability.

The icing on the cake for me is the song “Summer Nights (And Summer Days)”. My favorite songs from the 60s girl groups were always the ones that were gilded, had something more sinister lurking underneath the perfect pop structure (The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)” and “Past, Present, Future” by The Shangri-Las; much of the Beach Boys). “Summer Nights” does just that. It packs the lushness of the hazy August dusk, the dark undertones of being lovelorn and obsessed that hide under the blush of infatuation with the new. It’s post-Sandy and Danny. It’s the modern love, but still one that’s been around as long as we can remember.

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Chalk And Numbers – ”Summer Nights (And Summer Days)”
Chalk And Numbers – ”Let’s Go Away”
Chalk And Numbers – ”He Knew”