1 keeper
keeper avg .091
Ted Leo and company's follow-up to "Hearts of Oak" (2003) starts on an energetic note with the album's single "Me and Mia," frantically down-picked pop-punk but switching to reggae at the end of each chorus, followed by the similar "The Angels' Share," with a reggae rhythm created by staccato riffs. They pick up the pace even more with the double-time punk "The One Who Got Us Out." While still a punk tempo, "Heart Problems"**** is of all the tracks on the album the first to have a little aggression, finally breaking from the happy, poppy tone that dominates thus far. Actually, the title song is another one with a little bit of angst, resembling a circa-1980 bar band like Pat Benatar or Greg Kihn, or maybe that's the Thin Lizzie that other reviewers have mentioned. Reviewers of this album (and Ted Leo in general) also frequently reference Elvis Costello, and on this album I'd certainly agree; especially "Counting Down the Hours" and album-closer "Walking To Do" remind me of the Motown-y skip-beats of "Get Happy" (1980), while "Criminal Piece" could also be Costello on an earlier one.
But in general I'd consider this to be a punk album, like an album by a clean-ed up Green Day but with a more versatile rhythm section. Not to slight the band's effort, as they manage to change-up rhythms on a dime, employing everything from frantic rhythms to heavily accented riffs worthy of The Who. "Little Dawn" is a great indicator of the band's potential for these rhythmic innovations, though a lot of this song is dedicated to long stretches one monotonous fiddle-y riff (more or less lifted from My Morning Jacket's "One Big Holiday" (2003)), a glaring flaw in an otherwise stellar track; it gives me tendonitis just imagining playing that riff. In the end I had trouble picking out the great from the good when all the songs seem to run together with very little in tempo or tone to distinguish them; the album's bone dry production doesn't help, with every mix dominated by Leo's same clean, compressed guitar sound. Though heavily praised by critics, for me the album is a step down, at least from the handful of stand-out tracks from their previous album.
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