This Is Our Jam: Nurses, “Trying To Reach You”

Nurses' sound is hard to pin down; ostensibly a psychpop band, their music is too tightly constructed and beat-heavy to be called psych, and too strange to be called pop. And now, with new single “Trying to Reach You,” elements of R&B have been added to the mix, giving an already off-kilter sound new levels of jaunty accessibility. The vocals hit somewhere between Animal Collective’s Avey Tare and the Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth, with a rhythm just groovy enough for the dance floor. Whether consciously or not, “Trying to Reach You” shares three-quarters of its title and refrain with the opening lines of the Pixies “Hey” —fitting, considering the genre-blending R&B the Pixies also flirted with. Even if “Trying to Reach You” and the upcoming Dracula LP sees Nurses reaching new levels of success, I have a feeling they’ll never forget to keep things weird.