DEREK SEDAM
Staff Writer
Why is it so hard compiling a second album? It has plagued massive amounts of bands over the past few years.
Whether they go all Springsteen on us like The Killers or shade their emo edge like The Academy Is, the new generation of bands has been demanded to top their last album or fail miserably trying. Instead they end up taking drastic steps that ultimately hurt their careers.
Another phenomena in the past few years involves the term “blog band.” New and upcoming artists such as Vampire Weekend already have huge fan bases before their album release because of constant praise and worship through leaked mp3’s and concert reviews. The Artic Monkeys broke records across the pond selling more first-week albums than The Beatles simply by word-of-mouth and posting their songs on Myspace.
Minnesota college band Tapes ‘n Tapes (TnT) were worshiped on the Web and delivered on their debut, “The Loon,” which took a glimpse back at past indie favorites The Pixes and Talking Heads.
After touring for their critically acclaimed debut, TnT huddled back into the studio with veteran producer David Fridmann (of Flaming Lips fame) in New York. What comes out of the sessions is “Walk It Off,” a widely assorted arrangement of vague and forgettable songs drowned in Fridmann’s signature fuzz and crashing drums (minus the weird vibes of the Flaming Lips).
TnT takes their college-indie band shtick and tries to rock out too hard with too many jams, instead of crafting tight, constructed pieces that proved to help them on “The Loon.”
It’s not that TnT doesn’t try hard to catch your attention. Quality songs abound on the album, but the piece as a whole just doesn’t add up to “The Loon.”
Repeated plays of some songs will bring about an album that
relies heavily on melody. Mostly TnT crashes the car at the beginning with the opening tracks. “Le Ruse” cranks out way too much reverb on percussion and thrashing guitar without much success, and “Time of Songs” flies by despite being a slow number with nothing to be left thinking about.
Singer Josh Grier exploits his gruff vocals on the album’s single, “Hang Them All,” which slowly builds over soft guitar and organ until the last minute that fully explodes into the chorus.
After a quartet of unremarkable songs in the middle of the pack, TnT picks up the slack on “Blunt.” The song gets lost in a strange melody as Grier’s distorted vocals begin trying to keep up with symbol crashes. A fresh garage-rock beat comes in at the two-minute mark, almost as if the boys forgot they didn’t have a groove in the first place.
“Blunt” transitions well into equally enjoyable “George Michael,” which has nothing to do either with the Wham! singer or the loveable Arrested Development character but is equally as impressive with a constant Duran Duran-style guitar riff providing the pace for drummer Jeremy Hanson to let blow off a little steam every now and then.
“The Dirty Dirty” gives hope for the future of the band, as a dirty bass and guitar lead to Grier chanting, “Where did our money go?” On this track, they finally provide what “The Loon” was so good at doing – being unique with song structure while still being able to appeal to the mainstream.
Unfortunately the bad outweighs the good. “Walk It Off” is certainly a growing record for the relatively new band. The new album won’t make you fall in love with Tapes ‘n Tapes but instead hope for a brighter future.
04-10-2008
