I told the guys of Tomorrow’s Playlist I would only write reviews of things I actually think you should listen to.  That’s why you come to Tomorrow’s Playlist, isn’t it?  You are here to discover what you should listen to, not what you should use as a coaster.  Trust that I will take care of your ears and, in today’s case, tell you where music might take you if you need a mini-escape.

It required a daring, slippery venture in the ice and snow for me to get lost in Secret Colours’ Ep3 — my first two listens at home served as background noise to get some work done, and I realize on listen number three that this stuff is not background noise.  At a yuppie coffee shop surrounded by three off-duty cops, a snooty couple in their mid-50s, a nerdy grad student with an ugly goatee, and an adorable barista who I’m sure does open mic nights, I’m sucked in by Secret Colours.  This coffee shop crowd makes me a feel no more badass than my normal self, but the album most certainly does.

If Californication became a movie, the first song “Faust” would back up the opening montage of David Duchovny walking — yes, walking, likely in aviators and sunshine — from California to New York and back, all the while smooching hot chicks.  Segueing into “Legends of Love”, the second track, I’m quickly knocking back my coconut oolong tea and ordering a Jack and Coke as I’m taken to a hypothetical modern remake of Dazed and Confused and getting ready for a Friday night, hopefully one that includes my own smooching with David Duchovny or Matthew McConaughey without the peach bellbottoms.

Listen to those first two tracks on Friday and Saturday, and then save “Tender Pretender” for your lazy Sunday.  This track takes me to my couch with a dog in my lap (time to get a dog, I guess), feet on a boy, cards in my hand, and an herbal buzz keeping me smiling.  Then when you want to avoid thinking about the workweek coming back around, grab track number four, “Carry My Soul”, which will beg you to grab your guitar to strum along to the simple chords and hum the mellow female vocals (in my case, anyway) buzzing behind the front man’s simple and catchy rhymes.

Secret Colours wraps it up with a cover of the Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon”, which brings me back to reality as I sadly remember I’m nowhere near a sunny afternoon given the fluffy snowfall and grey skies.  I decided since I hadn’t heard the original Kinks version for a while, I’d look up the video on YouTube, which led me to a chuckle at the setting of the video — a dreary, snowy, forest holding Brits in pea coats and turtlenecks strumming their guitars.  So it turns out the Secret Colours knew exactly where they were taking me all along — I just wish the trip lasted a bit longer.

Any Chicagoans looking for their own winter escape should check out Secret Colours at Schuba’s on January 25.  I’d join you, but darn, I’ll be wearing aviators in sunny afternoons in Miami.  WIN.

Spotify playlist: Secret Colours’ Ep3

Karly: Thumbs Up!

Chris: Thumbs Up!