I'm not really sure how to feel about this album.

On one hand, I love the sing-a-longs (think if Pavement was influenced by Akron/Family) , and I love how crazy creative the songs get. This sounds like a band playing at full tilt, but the good kind where the car never really crashes, it just bounces joyfully back and forth between the parked cars as it careens down the street. The energy is infectious. I don't even know if I liked the album the first time I listened to it, but I knew that when it was over I longed for that energy, so I listened to it again.

Then on the other, I don't know why the mix is so bright on this whole album. It's like someone in the band was like "Everything will sound awesome if you make it so that ears bleed if you ever turn up this album as loud as it should rightfully be played!". The style of music occasionally gets to where it makes me feel a little embarrassed, for reasons unknown, but that just makes it a guilty pleasure, and guilty ones are always more fun. My girlfriend says they sound Harvey Danger, but I don't agree with that except that they are definitely one of the more bright sounding bands as well.

I waffled back and forth on what song to post. At first it was going to be "Floated Down and Flew Around" because I just love the melody of that one. The frantic pace of the song with the group singing really makes me tap my foot. However, that song isn't really a good example of their bigger numbers, and the "Woo!" kind of annoys me, so it probably isn't a good example.

Last.FM says their top track is "Stay That Way" but I didn't want to post that one because it's the first track on the album and it just doesn't seem right, so I thought about "Black Market Pandas", the second song. After the almost normal indie-rock feel of the first track, the bouncy swagger of "Pandas" is almost like a backhand. It's a nice combo, leaving you wondering what other surprises the album has in store, but there's no big group vocal in it. It could make you think they're just some funky weird band loved by high school kids (for some reason this song reminds me of high school? Why?), so not that one.

"Perched on a Porch" is such an emo song, posting it seems like it'd be doing a worse crime to your first impression of the band. This is an album that contains so many different directions that it's practically impossible to just pick one song and say, "Here! Listen to this!" and expect you to understand how interesting and diverse the full album is. I'm pretty sure that's a compliment. I'll let the band lead off the album like they do on the record, so that's why you've got the first song, "Stay That Way".

Look at how much time you've wasted.