I first heard this album on the web, namely NME.com, and had it blaring out of my computer speakers for most of the following week. This is a band, who on first impressions seem like geniuses, but after a few months of owning this album, a different view seems to be evoked. This is the story...
After finally working up enough money to buy this album, I bought the CD and had the chance to play this through my hi-fi instead of my not-so-good quality computer speakers. As the album starts a short radio sound gradually comes into hearing range. It is a pretty cliched idea but the way it flows into the true album opener "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" is something to admire the director of this album for. The song breaks through with a lovely spanish-stlye acoustic guitar part while the lead vocals bring in the opening words of "sit tight...". A pretty nifty way to open an album. And the song continues into an electric riff of the same manner with the acoustic guitar, with more words of how amazing this album will be. Some may call this cocky, but I somehow feel this a very nice way of grabbing that audience.
The next song in line "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines" which is by far the worst on this disc. It is in no way a bad tune, but the lack of depth this song has, compared to every other song, is a real letdown for the second track.
The following number "Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks" enters with a techno keyboard riff and then bursts into a decent verse heavily bassed up, for this album at least. It's the bridge and the chorus in this song that really standout. The bridge is a subtle yet obvious whistful sounding break away, and it leads to an extremely catchy, extremely dancey, and very big chorus. The standout of this song.
After this concoction of technoistic pop-punk comes "Camisado". Minus the speedy tehcno keyboard background riff, this song could have been ripped from the demo tapes to Fallout Boy's "Take This to Your Grave". A disappointment for listeners looking for more than the average pop-punk from this album.
Then comes the wondeful "Time to Dance". It rips through the subtle ending to "Camisado" with a heavy techno riff that could be pictured in some night club full of strobe lights and lasers, somewhere in New York. The way it fits with the pop-punk luciousness of this songs is tantamount to genius.
The rest of the songs don't disappoint either, with brilliant tunes and the first vaguely memorable guitar parts, and one of the best lyrics this album has to offer in "When I Say Shotgun, You Say Wedding... Shotgun! Wedding! Shotgun! Wedding!". Completely absurd lyrics from a seemingly absurd attempt at a song, but somehow it pieces together incredibly, leaving the hairs on the back of your neck standing for long after.
The next track is, by far, the standout song for excellent brilliance and wonderfulness. "Lying is the Most Fun a Woman Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" (even if the title is taken from the film "Closer") is perfect pop-punk song about sex and sex-related events, with the atmosphere of the most emotional of shags. The lyrics, no matter who should be accredited for them, are amazing, and the whole song fits so well with the theme. The best song on this album has hit you.
And then the album does the ridiculous thing of splitting. The intermission is annoyingly long, and even if it does keep up the techno radio them it annoys the ass of the listener, especially when the repetitive piano chimes in.
When the album finally rejoins us, we aren't completely stunned, as the dancey feel is still obvious in this song from the beggining. All that is evident is the piano is no longer drowned in techno effects but just clean.
When this song ends and the plucked violins and smooth string section joins us... sorry: plucked violins! string sections! yes that's right, the dancey stuff you thought this album was rife with has gone all Victorian on our ears. Fortunately though, it leads into the first single "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", which has been all over most airwaves for few months odd now. Yeh you've all heard the dingle version and the only difference is there's no whispering voices in this one. Darned shame!
When that song leaves us we are treated to the standout of this half of the album. "I Constantly Thank God for Esteban" (what the hell is esteban anyway?) is graced with a lovely Spanish-style acoustic guitar (yeh, remember "The Only Difference..."). This song strides through some talk about churches and other assorted jumble with aplomb! An explosion of a chorus and a tactfully difficult verse are non-comparative to the surprise i had when plucking itself out at the end was a GUITAR SOLO!!!! Yes you heard it, there is a guitar solo on this album! As simple as it may be, it's still adds more character to the brilliance of this song.
The next song is short, wonderful in its blending of Victorian musicals and pop-punk energy, but other than that there's not much about this song that is attractive (except of course the strangely placed brass section, which adds an even more confusing factor as to what this song is actually trying to do).
The final song on this album does what the previous song does, but 10 times better, even taking lyrics from that famous stage performance of ours, ("the hills are alive with..."). It ends the album with a incredible idea pulled off with great tact and great performance.
The one let down of this album though, throughout no matter how original the second half is (and how much better than the other bands who've done the techno thing the first half is) is that it's too good for its own boots. This is such an addictive album that after a week of constant listening (and I mean CONSTANT!) you will get sick of it! completely sick of it! And so after all that's good about this album, it will be worn to breaking point in a week, and then sit and gather dust in your rack of futile pop-punk whingings. Such a shame this album is too original for its own genre!!
