Ten Minute Turns is really a two-headed animal — guitarist Alan Foreman and bassist Roger Mason wrote, arranged, recorded, and produced the songs together — and I think that helps make Sad Animals a consistently winning listening experience: they trade vocals off and on, often in the same song; they both have a great ear for melodies and hooks; and they’ve got a playful, everything-often-including-the-kitchen-sink attitude about sound that comfortably blends classic indie-rock, post-punk, drone-rock, and unabashed pop into a cohesive idea.

The album’s percussion is consistently interesting — drums are enhanced with hand-claps, finger-snaps, jittery cymbal flourishes, and sometimes the rhythm section sounds like Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids were backing them up, like they raided a junkyard and banged on metal trash cans and empty pipes. The production is really playful, too: be sure to give the disc a spin with headphones on — some of the more subtle things they do with drum loops and sound effects get magnified with the buds in.

The album’s highlights are many: “C.A.R.L.” is a delightfully quirky pop tune built on a foundation of melodica and Casio-keyboard rhythms that features a fantastic, soaring chorus; “Since You Haven’t Been Around” is a building, muscular rock song, complete with singalong “oh, oh”’s in the chorus; “Calm” nicely recalls Modern English’s “Melt With You,” with its’ heavy synths and acoustic strums; and “Made Up Dreams” starts out quietly before building into a booming, anthemic, sturm-und-drang chorus. My two favorites on the album are title track “Sad Animals,” a bouncy pop tune with a crashing rhythm section, wild horn accompaniment, and a catchy-as-heck chorus, and album closer “Wolf in the Water,” a quiet, moody ballad that grows into a beautiful, epic crescendo and features some gorgeous vocal harmonizing.

.... Give Sad Animals a try — you’ll be hard-pressed to have more fun with an unsigned band this year.

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