SALES

Orlando may be synonymous with a certain cartoon mouse’s amusement-park palace, but since 2013, SALES have been building their own magic kingdom in the city, rebranding it as a cradle for heartfelt, homespun indie pop. Formed by high-school friends Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih, SALES embrace all the intimacy and imperfections of bedroom recording, complete with minimalist guitar melodies, lo-fi drum-machine beats and the sort of hot-mic room ambience that turns creaking chairs into an auxiliary instrument. But within their skeletal arrangements, SALES get their beating heart from Morgan’s winsome voice: On the duo’s 2014 calling card “Chinese New Year”, she deftly intertwines different eras of indie pop, investing the austere pulse of early New Order with the bright, yearning tunefulness of a Camera Obscura tune. After releasing their lovably low-key self-titled debut album in 2016 (loaded with gems like “Big Sis” and “Sorry Bro”, which are as charmingly slackadaisical as their titles), SALES added a proper drummer for tours, even though they continued to record in their original two-piece incarnation. But while 2018’s Forever & Ever saw Morgan and Shih double down on their hermetic work ethic, the subtle introduction of dream-pop textures, yacht-rock grooves and xx-style arty R&B suggests a bedroom-pop act that’s become a little more accustomed to opening up the drapes and letting more light in.