Bomb the Music Industry!
Vacation
Quote Unquote (2011)
RIYL: The Thermals, Cheap Girls, Fake Problems
Score: 10/10
If there’s anything good about the Vegas heat and its ability to turn normally active citizens into air conditioning worshiping couch potatoes, it’s that it gives us the chance to catch up on some new music. And when that new music is as good as Vacation, the latest LP from Jeff Rosenstock’s New York musical collective Bomb the Music Industry!, summer is welcome to stay around all year.
The first thing that struck me about this record is how accessible it feels compared to previous releases from the band. Pop influences are clear throughout, but never more so than on lead single Vocal Coach, which channels early Weezer with its synth line perfectly complementing Rosenstock’s eager, emotional shout. Brian Wilson-style surf rock can be heard on Hurricane Waves which showcases lo-fi production, a relaxed tempo, and an amazing vocal melody by Rosenstock as he sings about how quickly adulthood sneaks up on you. Why, Oh Why, Oh Why? (Oh Oh Oh Oh) could have been plucked right from the 1960s with its rhythm and brass sections begging you to dance and sing along about oppressive cliques and letting go of those “stuck in their world of cool.”
Aside from just being plain fun to listen to, the lyrical content of Vacation is something to be admired. The frantic pace and dancy beat of Everybody That You Love cover up some crushingly personal words like “all the people I love the best have grown increasingly impatient with the person I am, and some people I hardly know will never understand.” The punk rock sound of album closer Felt Just Like a Vacation is sure to incite seas of spinning, slamming kids this summer but they’ll be singing along to lyrics that outline deepening depression as the year unfolds, “December destroyed me. January crushed me. By February, I was not myself.”
The two best tracks on Vacation combine catchy musical experimentation with impressive storytelling ability. Campaign for a Better Next Weekend finds Rosenstock adopting a softer and almost unrecognizable voice for the tale of his one “warm” day of winter in New York and how it didn’t end up as he planned. Bits of programmed beats are quickly interspersed into the piano-(not synth) driven ballad that builds and builds until the story, music, and haunting, harmonizing choir crash together into a frenzied wall of sound. Sick, Later. is much less subdued and is instantly catchy with its falsetto “woo ooo”s, handclaps, and 8-bit programming even while the lyrics tell the tale of an anxiety-ridden trip to the hospital.
Vacation retains much of the quirks and “anything goes” attitude that has garnered BTMI! a fiercely loyal fan base but the delivery here is more conventional and I wouldn’t be surprised if this opens the band up to a larger following.
You can get Vacation for FREE right now from Quote Unquote Records, though I’m sure the band would appreciate a donation with each download.
-Emily Matview and Ashleigh Thompson
No Comments