Like
Beck in his '90s prime,
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names have no respect for musical boundaries. If they think a mixture of African-styled highlife-guitars, electronic beats, and ukuleles is a good idea for an indie pop song, they won't hesitate to put it on record. The result? Wonderful.
#3 includes former EP A-side "Funeral Face," and just listen to the opening of "Peter's Dream": within mere seconds they combine
Kraftwerk-styled percussion with a guitar that sounds exactly like
Hank Marvin anno 1960, and it could hardly have sounded more right. On "Seems to Be on My Mind," the distorted vocals and shuffly beat almost make them sound classic rock cool, before it breaks into a singalong chorus echoing the kind of pop like they used to make between the world wars. And so it goes on and on, genres and styles meet and ultimately converge through the unusually strong pop songwriting that always lies at the core of the album. No song gets boring, ever.
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names sure do possess the geeky charm so beloved in indie and lo-fi circles. Classic one-liners like "there's a Falcon Crest side to everything" and "I wanna turn all their dancefloors into a burning inferno of ba ba ba" are the stuff dreams are made of for any indie pop aficionado. But don't let the spectacles and the wit fool you. There's nothing amateurish about the kids' performance at any point; in fact, the instrumental performances and the creative and crystal clear production are among the most impressive things about this album. Seldom do debut albums come as truly wonderful as this one. ~ Anders Kaasen