The Airborne Toxic Event have received some pretty good press recently. Their eponymous debut album has been trumpeted as ‘
the best debut CD of 2008’ and
‘nothing short of amazing’ by the
Boston Herald and
LA Times respectively. However, upon hearing the album opener
Wishing Well, those superlatives become pretty hard to swallow.
It’s obvious what the LA quintet set out to do. They love upbeat, punky aesthetics with a hint of melancholy – bands like
The Jam and songs like
Boys Don’t Cry. They love the jagged, warm, soothing, triangular tones and textures of synthesisers.
They set out to conquer the world by fusing the trebly chords of
The Strokes with the disco feel of
Bloc Party's rhythm section; the raw simplicity of
Green Day with the charm and wit of
Pixies. And they thought violins were cool, so they used one of those too. It was a great recipe for a potentially fun and interesting band.
The result: 37 minutes of vacuous fodder which could only be made duller by adding a bonus track of William Roache commenting on every scene of Coronation Street he’s ever appeared in. Actually, that would make the album
much more interesting.
Now here’s why.
Firstly, Jollett’s vocal performance. It is hammy, insincere and he does that ‘croaky’ thing at the beginning and end of passages that is commonly encountered on
Britney Spears and
Crash Test Dummies records. The lyrics seem to have been combed over by label execs so that every single one screams generic angst.
When we were only seventeen, we were holding back our screams / Like we’d torn our lives in the pages of some girly magazines. This line from the track
Gasoline (they were clearly thinking ahead with the rhyme scheme) is a prime example of the luke-warm and meaningless lyrics that run throughout the LP.
The melodies of each track are equally uninspired - often alternating between two notes and transposing at each chord change. Musically, the songs are predictable and little use has been made of Anna Bulbrook’s potentially life-saving violin skills. In fact, the one glimmer of hope in the album is the opening 30 seconds to the standout track
Sometime Around Midnight. Here, an intelligent string arrangement and chord progression stand out from the futility of the following song and indeed the rest of the album.
It’s a shame the LP hasn’t realised its potential – a few changes and it could be passable and even enjoyable. Unfortunately, it is let down by lazy songwriting, unimaginave lyrical content and loose performance (particularly the intro guitar on the painfully titled
This Nowhere). The good news for The Airborne Toxic Event, however, is that they still have the hype to rely on.
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The Airborne Toxic Event
An Open Letter to PItchfork Media from the Airborne Toxic Event