You Are the One I Pick

While there is something downright unsettling about the debut of English duo Felix, there is something equally mesmerizing. Classically trained musician Lucinda Chua and Stars guitarist Chris Summerlin create a tableaux equally pregnant with longing and disdain, while somber strings, piano and Chua’s cool vocals (capable of both detached icyness and wary seduction) and Summerlin’s atmospheric guitar pretty up the lyrics as they fall into each other like dominoes. “I said I would stop being mean, but it’s your viscous tongue that goes on... that goes on ...” The end phrase is repeated over and over in a tumble, until a hummingbird-like violin interludes. If you’re not utterly entranced when the elegiac “Death To Everyone But Us” (all funereal strings and unearthly twinkling piano) melts into the title track (languidly casual, yet disturbingly declarative), then this fragile, fearless and slightly bewildering outing may not be for you. But if that’s your first take, we suggest you try again.