Anybody with a synthesizer, a computer and a little cord can make a bedroom synth-pop album, which is why most of them are so shitty. When you hear a good one — especially one made locally — it's like discovering that you dig the new Staind song or something (read: unexpected, to say the least). Such is the case with Strange Teen Heart, the latest four-song EP from Capybara member Darin Seal (also known as Saharan Gazelle Boy). Seal's got a boner for the '80s, but he's less interested in the thrusting postpunk of Joy Division than he is in the lighter, airier sounds of the Thompson Twins. It's dreamy pop music, with agreeable vocal melodies and synth lines that land on the right side of cheesy. Collaborator Sarah Handelman (known here as Sea Change) pitches in vocals on two of the tracks — and thank God for that, because Seal's voice is almost comically thin. This would be much more problematic and distracting if these were less likable songs. Lucky for Saharan Gazelle Boy, they're not.
