Lisboa/Kid Brother Collective The Split Acutest Records mail@acutestrecords.com Two youthful-sounding indie-pop bands weld together a split that offers catchiness with room to relax. Lisboa's "Necessary Evelyn" is a refreshing number with a catchy chorus over jumping guitars. Happy pop for feeling good. There is a light, triangle-like keyboard sound that is particularly audible during the verses, which adds to the uplifting effect of this song. It is more multidimensional than the following piano-filled ditty, a bouncy tune that any tigger would love. Lisboa uses an ambient keyboard-focused instrumental approach on L'Empire Des Lumieres, showing a side of the band we didn't get to witness on earlier tracks. For such a short CD, another songlike track would have been nice. Kid Brother Collective brings the happy emo of "Home is a Pen", which features running verses before slower rhythms and heavier guitars in the choruses. The bright and crunchy guitars here are urging us to see the possibilities in what could habve been just another day. They bring it down a bit for the repetitive but easily listenable "Forget Me Nots" before going acoustic for "The Small of Her Back", the good-night to the good morining of "Home is a Pen". It gives this split a little extra something. This is a very cheerful split with two bands possessing that radio-friendly emo voice somewhere between Saves The Day and Dashboard Confessional. Lisboa and Kid Brother Collective show a good deal of flexibility in their songwriting, giving us something to look forward to. Check them out.