Spring Break
Clever lyrics and feel-good flavor
In the wake of bands such as the Postal Service and the Decemberists, Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies add more quirky, melodic nerd rock to the world with their self-titled debut album.
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
Music | 1/22/08
Posted online at 11:35 PM EST on 1/21/08
Sunny pop seems to be the last thing American music needs. Skinny dudes in cute t-shirts translating the jangle-pop of such acts as the Apples in Stereo and the bright melodies of bands like Of Montreal into bland pop rock for use on The O.C. and VH1 promos are a dime a dozen. Why, then, should I choose to highlight Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies' self-titled first album when 2007 saw so many illustrious releases?
Between last year's Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Interpol and Radiohead releases, little albums like Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies' had nary a chance to shine through the clouds of praise that fogged up the blogosphere throughout 2007. Now it's time to revisit the light-hearted troubadour's first LP and, dare I say, "forgotten pop gem," which came out April 20.
What is perplexing about Goldberg is his unabashed love for Neutral Milk Hotel, which factors nowhere into his music. Visit Goldberg's Web site or Myspace page and you're sure to find a number of blog post titles and photo captions taken from the seminal 1990s rock band's lyrics. The album, however, skews much closer to the music of Neutral Milk Hotel labelmate and friend Robert Schneider, of Apples in Stereo. Goldberg's sweet melodies and "na-na-na" backing vocals evoke the Apples' recent albums, although with a less experimental sound. Goldberg's song "Artichokes" actually ends with a series of "sha-doos."
His voice, at once snide and earnest (but not too earnest-think Ben Gibbard circa The Postal Service rather than Taking Back Sunday), along with his inventive rhymes, hints at an attitude popularized by the Decemberists. I'll call it "cleverness," if only to avoid "lit-rock," a term applied by music journalists to virtually any band with glasses since the release of the Decemberists' 2005 album Picaresque. Suffice it to say that the song "February Third" has a lyric about index cards. The song, the second track on the album, is one of the best, in my opinion, although it is perhaps also the most Decemberist-flavored. It's no wonder then that the song has the harmonic minor flavor of many of Decemberist favorite the Smiths' dire ditties, but without the gloomy guitars and vocals of that influential British band.
Between last year's Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Interpol and Radiohead releases, little albums like Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies' had nary a chance to shine through the clouds of praise that fogged up the blogosphere throughout 2007. Now it's time to revisit the light-hearted troubadour's first LP and, dare I say, "forgotten pop gem," which came out April 20.
What is perplexing about Goldberg is his unabashed love for Neutral Milk Hotel, which factors nowhere into his music. Visit Goldberg's Web site or Myspace page and you're sure to find a number of blog post titles and photo captions taken from the seminal 1990s rock band's lyrics. The album, however, skews much closer to the music of Neutral Milk Hotel labelmate and friend Robert Schneider, of Apples in Stereo. Goldberg's sweet melodies and "na-na-na" backing vocals evoke the Apples' recent albums, although with a less experimental sound. Goldberg's song "Artichokes" actually ends with a series of "sha-doos."
His voice, at once snide and earnest (but not too earnest-think Ben Gibbard circa The Postal Service rather than Taking Back Sunday), along with his inventive rhymes, hints at an attitude popularized by the Decemberists. I'll call it "cleverness," if only to avoid "lit-rock," a term applied by music journalists to virtually any band with glasses since the release of the Decemberists' 2005 album Picaresque. Suffice it to say that the song "February Third" has a lyric about index cards. The song, the second track on the album, is one of the best, in my opinion, although it is perhaps also the most Decemberist-flavored. It's no wonder then that the song has the harmonic minor flavor of many of Decemberist favorite the Smiths' dire ditties, but without the gloomy guitars and vocals of that influential British band.
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