PunchBook

Grade - C+

It seems that a lot of the Indie/Emo music being pumped out of the UK these days sounds the same. When I first listened to A Guide To Love, Loss, and Desperation it was more or less background music while I was working. When I popped it into my iPod and really heard it I found that it sounded a lot like the Kooks (whom I like) and had some captivating lyrics much like the Kaiser Chiefs (whom I also like). But two rights aren’t making a right here.

Kill the Director gets this album off on the right foot (on track #2), after all the slow tempo and soft sounding albums I’ve listened to in the past week - this was a welcomed sound. This track has all the makings of a classic single and has been getting solid radio play, and rightfully so. The hard hitting tune and clever lyrics make this song one of the best on the album along with “Lost in the Past.” Both songs have that top 40 feel that the kids seem to enjoy, and I’m sure these boys are plastered all over the bedroom walls of 15 year old girls in Liverpool and beyond. One track that might be popular with the boys is “Patricia the Stripper.”

The big knock I have on this album is that the first 6-7 songs all start sound the same. The melodies are loud and they repeat one line time after time, after time, after time. It gets old quick, maybe not so much the loudness, who doesn’t love that, but the lyrical repetition. These songs just chug along, nothing seems to come out and grab the listener.

The Wombats give us a taste of what to expect on the first track - as this is an album packed with reminiscent love songs about boys and girls and marsupials. This album more like Bridget Jones than a rock album, despite what these boys have to say about it.