I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a band since I overheard The Shins in some small town bookstore in 2005. This specific song is so hooky perfect it hurts. From the elegant arrangement of the instrumentation to the low key sweetness of the vocals, everything just comes together to create a hook that won’t quit. Just try to hit pause after hearing the line “I don’t know how local you are …” The magnetic pull of this tune is subtle but strong. It was pretty much hit play, hit repeat for me for a couple of days.

“Tourist Attraction” is the opening track on the band’s 2017 release, Shag, a record that made a whole lot of year end ‘best of’ lists on the power pop blogosphere, usually near the top. Descriptors like ‘Beatlesque’ were fairly common. Somehow I missed its June release, as well as a pretty stellar 2012 album (Charm) and nice 2007 self-titled debut. My bad. Yet despite all the accolades accompanying these three long players the band’s impact on the internet seems pretty slight, with precious little coverage or, frankly, that much band presence. So this is me, shouting from the rooftops, “Sitcom Neighbor’s “Tourist Attraction” is solid gold ear candy!” And you can take that to the bank. Get it. Now.

Tourist Attraction

Sitcom Neighbor do have one piece of internet real estate. Hit like on their Facebook page here. And purchase Shag wherever quality recordings are sold.