The Universe Smiles Upon You
The debut: barn-recorded grooves steeped in 1960s Thai luk thung, and the band's first songs with vocals.
Khruangbin, 2015
- Released
- 6 November 2015
- Studio
- The Barn, Burton, Texas
- Label
- Night Time Stories
- Producer
- Mark Speer, Steve Christensen
- Length
- 39:40
Recorded at the barn with Steve Christensen and mixed by Christensen and Speer at the Tree House, the album draws on the 1960s Thai luk thung that Speer would play on cassette while Lee cooked. It was the band's first record with vocals, on People Everywhere (Still Alive), Balls and Pins and White Gloves, the single released that September. Will Van Horn added pedal steel. The design is by Samuel Muir, with pencil sketches by Lee.
Paste rated it 8.4 out of ten, and Stereogum's Peter Helman found it dreamy and built on grooves. For its tenth anniversary in 2025 the band re-recorded it as The Universe Smiles Upon You ii, dropping Mr. White and adding Bin Bin, first a Japanese bonus track.
Track listing
- Mr. White4:58
- Two Fish and an Elephant3:33
- Dern Kala3:39
- Little Joe & Mary5:08
- White Gloves3:38
- People Everywhere (Still Alive)2:39
- The Man Who Took My Sunglasses2:13
- August Twelve6:13
- Balls and Pins3:28
- Zionsville4:11
Personnel
- Laura Lee bass, vocals
- Mark Speer guitar, vocals, percussion; producer, mixing
- Donald Johnson Jr. drums
- Will Van Horn pedal steel
- Steve Christensen recording, mixing, producer
- Samuel Muir design
More from Khruangbin
A Calf Born in Winter (2014), Con Todo El Mundo (2018)
Sources
- The Universe Smiles Upon You, Bandcamp
- The Universe Smiles Upon You, Wikipedia
- Bubblin' Up: Khruangbin, XLR8R
- The Universe Smiles Upon You ii, Northern Transmissions (2025)