A sense of leisurely romanticism infuses Camilo Medina’s croon. Youth. Lust. The pursuit of virgin flesh with hedonic tenacity. Like Polaroid revelers well-versed in Springsteen-ian games of seduction, the Chicago-by-Columbia singer and the other three members of Divino Niño play like they’re leaving bloody fingerprints on the diaries of every “long blonde hair[ed]” lover along the coast of Lake Michigan. In a blanket of floral harmonies, the band initially sounds too hypnotized by their own swagger, but soon hit a pleasingly psychedelic stride in the song’s bridge. Lyrics like “rip my clothes in half” are expressed halfway asleep, as if written on a sunset train journey through the desert, daydreaming about the girl who left two single initials in liquid cursive at the base of his thumb.
“Initials LV,” the first off of Divino Niño’s debut album Pool Jealousy, serves three directives:
1. To let us ignore Alex Turner, Medina’s British foil, since he is dangerously close to going off the deep end.
2. To let us release that hot, hot pressure in our loins that has been building up all winter in a pelvic thrust that carries us out the front door and onto the new spring lawn, where the grass is more than happy to perforate our skin with microscopic cuts.
3. To let us, once again (I say once again, but Oh Joy! For some of you, it will be the first time), do what we do best: try to get the attention of the opposite sex in a way that is cool, confident, and ultimately meaningless.
Pool Jealously is out April 8 on The Native Sound. Go here for more information.
• Divino Niño: http://www.divinoninoband.com
• The Native Sound: http://thenativesound.limitedrun.com