the breakups

Eat Your Heart Out

(Bait Shop Pop)

Record Review by Amber Henson

Mm.  There’s nothing like a sweet, new, indie pop EP.  Short, fun, digestible.  I’m super excited about the breakups.  There’s a cute combo of Hawaiian guitar sounds, twang, and smart lyrics.  There’s a vague connection to the power pop of the early '90s.  The breakups remind me of lighter Letters to Cleo, if they were fronted by a guy instead.  (“You remind me of a young Scooby Doo.”  Animaniacs, anyone?)

I love it when EPs are more than five songs, and this one comes in at eight - enough rocking songs for these obvious pedal junkies, but some slow, painful songs like “Tissue Sample”.  This song seems to have a cello in the background and constantly overlapping soft voices saying “Sample this” (to which I say, ew).

The following song, "After The Fact," is their longest, with a fun beat at the beginning and then an awesome disco part to round things out.  They’re so clever with the way they put the songs together and lyrics: “When no means I guess I might.”  Sentiments of the early '90s.

I’m not really sure when that '70s/Michael Jackson/roller rink sound came back, but first it was The Virgins and now I’m hearing it everywhere.  “After The Fact” segues into “Let’s See What Happens”, which is sexy with its deep guitars and synths.  They’re fond of using the synths to crescendo in the majority of their songs, pulling us back to the nineties, along with Ash-sounding guitar riffs.  They’re also partial to accordions and banjos, something which will draw no complaint from me.

This album is like a time-traveling puppy.  Time traveling because it pulls you from 30 years ago to 10 years ago, and a puppy ‘cause it’s cute.  Hm. Maybe I should use science fiction concepts and animal combinations in all my reviews.