Walking that thin wall that separates comedy rock and goofy indie pop, Sound of Urchin delivers an album that seems unsure of which direction to pursue. The band has that Cars-meets-They Might Be Giants pop sound that so many bands absorbed after Weezer found success with. And much like most of those bands, they add a good deal of humor to the music, but in this band's case they may overdo it. For example, "Rock N Roll Jubilee" is a gorgeous and energetic pop song that may have humorous lyrics, but pays more attention to ...
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Walking that thin wall that separates comedy rock and goofy indie pop, Sound of Urchin delivers an album that seems unsure of which direction to pursue. The band has that Cars-meets-They Might Be Giants pop sound that so many bands absorbed after Weezer found success with. And much like most of those bands, they add a good deal of humor to the music, but in this band's case they may overdo it. For example, "Rock N Roll Jubilee" is a gorgeous and energetic pop song that may have humorous lyrics, but pays more attention to songcraft and melody than cheap puns. When they chant "hey" in a metal-esque manner, it fits the song and thus serves as both a gag and an appropriate addition to the music. But a song like "The Millipede/Who'll Stop the Beggar" comes off as a smarmy Dead Milkmen-esque joke that pokes fun at thrash metal without making any significant jokes or commentary on the topic. Songs like this hurt the overall album; it becomes harder to know what songs to take seriously and the "fun" mood they try to create becomes far less fun when their jokes start to grow old with continuous listens. This is a group with a lot of potential, but they should take a page out of the career of tourmates Tenacious D and figure out exactly what they'd like to dedicate their career to instead of making okay albums of facelessly "fun" music. ~ Bradley Torreano, Rovi
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Add this copy of You Are the Best to cart. $23.71, new condition, Sold by Music Fiendz rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from South Hackensack, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by RCA.
