ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews

The Dodos

Andy Partridge should receive some sort of stipend or flower arrangement from San Franciscan trio the Dodos, so full of XTC's patented, swirling Britpop is this third outing from guitarist Meric Long, drummer Logan Kroeber, and new vibraphonic addition Keaton Snyder. Time to Die's engagingly earnest if silkily overproduced guitar epigrams wear their impeccable influences fearlessly on their sleeves if nothing else, and in soaring opener "Small Deaths" there's something approaching Doves. "Fables," however, is so striking in its similarities to Partridge & Co. that it could be a long-lost track from XTC's Oranges & Lemons. No matter. In a time when the entire back catalog of all music ever recorded is freely available online, it's reassuring to realize that just because Partridge and Colin Moulding aren't speaking these days doesn't mean that the Dodos won't step in and release the most enjoyable XTC album in 20 years. (12:30pm, LiveStrong stage.)