El Perro Del Mar
From The Valley To The Stars
Control Group/Tcg






Sweden's Sarah Assbring records under the moniker El Perro Del Mar and has gained a reputation for mixing the sweet sounds of 1960s girl group pop with a melancholy twist that's all her own. Her sophomore effort From The Valley To The Stars finds the singer/songwriter expanding on her musical palette. Her song sketches are still drenched in sunny day sweetness but there's even more to love this time around. What was merely lush before is now radiant. Assbring's perfect pop voice glides easily through sugar-laced melodies backed by organs and more contemporary pop arrangements. "Do Not Despair" plays like a gospel piece filtered through The Ronettes while the mid-tempo "Somebody's Baby" coos along like a wall of sound chart topper that would have blared out of a transistor radio.

--Amy Wagner