Take "The Worst Idea." The song is okay if you ditch that damn keyboard! It sounds like an old Monkees riff, with all honesty, and it's so fucking annoying. The good songs on this disc are really good, and the bad ones aren't even that bad, either, they just need some revisions. It's a cool little song which they'll probably never play live. Jim's other track on the album, "Campfire Kansas," a guitar/piano duet with distorted vocals, is a complete reversal and gets a thumbs up. "High As The Moon" and "All That I Know" both come across as Beatles "influence" tunes, but both sound completely flat and uninspired, *especially* "All That I Know." This is one of 2 songs Jim takes the vocals on, and it's absolutely horrendus - the keyboards are annoying and Jim's lyrics are pseudo-hippy garbage. Unfortunately, the album takes a nosedive directly afterwards.
The band does inject some rock into their newfound formula on tracks like the energetic "Stay Gone." "Grunge Pig" also shines through on the disc, getting the same treatment that the Anniversary recently did to their sound - go classic rock on it! It works, as Grunge Pig is a thunderous 4 minute rocker with the yelled chorus of "I ask each year/ why am I here? / Begging you please / remembering / I'd rather die than be alone." It really is a high point of the album, both lyrically and musically. It should be noted, however, that both songs really are great, great tracks. Tracks like the opener "Overdue" and closer "Hannah Hold On" are both acoustic ballads that slide along. It's obvious that Matt's time spent in the New Amsterdams between albums has affected this one greatly. But that is the style of the new Get Up Kids. That sounds harsh, though, and I don't mean it like that. Gone are the bouncy, playful tracks like "I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel" and "Don't Hate Me." Gone are the harder rockers like "10 Minutes" and "Action and Action." Gone are the sheer raw emotions of tracks like "Shorty" and "A Newfound Interest in Massachusetts." What remains? Remember that song "Company Dime," off their last album? You know, the one that just plodded along at a regular tempo, with no real energy or hook to it? That's about it. And if I were burnt out, this would be the album I'd make. These kids have worked their asses off in their brief existance and all they ever do is catch flak for it if I were them, I'd be burnt out, too. The band has gone from meager Midwest beginnings to being the openers on national tours for Green Day and Weezer, not to mention consistently selling out their own shows across the country. The Get Up Kids have inexplicably become the whipping boys of the emo-pop explosion, taking the brunt of everyone's criticisms from Pitchfork to Buddyhead. Two types of people are going to read this review: people who hate the Get Up Kids and want to see me bash them, and - well, actually, that's probably the only type of person that's reading this.
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