Thief

Last weekend's holiday road trip gave me time to listen to every CD in the minivan, including some I hadn't heard in months.  One of those was Sunchild by Thief, from the Berlin-based Sonar Kollektiv.  (A musical collective, it seems, is a bunch of people who make music together in groups of two or more under different monikers for commercial release.  Or it's a fancy way to say "record label.")  Thief is a collaboration between Stefan Leisering and Axel Reinemer of Jazzanova and singer Sascha Gottschalk, and I won't pretend to know any more about them.  I last listened to Sunchild in early summer, when I got it, and it never progressed from "nice while I'm listening to it" to "I'm still humming the songs days after hearing them."  But this time some of the songs made that jump, the foremost being track 2, "Atlantic":

I think I've isolated Thief's musical DNA: they're a cross between Stereolab and The Association.  Here are one song from each to back up my claim:

Does that sound about right?  Mrs. Veneer hears more Duncan Sheik than The Association in Thief, and wants me to append one of his songs, but I'm saving Duncan for other purposes.  Speaking of Mrs. Veneer, the Sunchild cover art strongly resembles her own, especially the lettering of "thief."  Which is to say it's lovely.