Get Awkward

Get Awkward is mostly more of the same but with more hooks, more wit, and a hell of a lot more emotion.

So even though the songs have great live potential and are manufactured with poppy punk precision, the end product doesn't quite fit the equation. [Winter 2008, p.95]

BYOP remain blissfully bored by the idea of lyrical or musical subtlety, which is why they're so perfect.

Get Awkward showcases a sound reliant on the push and pull between a band whose middle ground is fun.

Get Awkward is relentless, riotous and raw.

What BYOP now lack is the element of surprise that made their debut such a kick; they no longer sound as if they had something to prove, and that drains their music of much of its charm.

Even with song subjects nicked from movies, the only false thing here is the title: Get Awkward my ass. It's extremely difficult to imagine these hyperdrive darlings as anything but fully adept.

[Jemina Pearl's] shrieking self-reliance rings powerful as ever on the Nashville garage-punk quartet's sophomore album.

Still, the best songs have more than enough energy and creativity to prevent this album from being an Awkward sophomore slump.

Get Awkward, as an album, is a step up, and it certainly has highs and lows, but what I’m really missing here are things like "Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle" or even “October, First Account,” songs that really stick out.

A second album every bit as upbeat, funny and furious as their eponymous 2006 debut. [Apr 2008, p.105]

Let it also be said that Jemima Pearl’s voice has improved in a myriad of ways; throughout Be Awkward, she wails, rally-cries, and (especially on 'Becky') croons with a range of emotions that were bereft in previous recordings. If there’s one thing Be Awkward has in common with BYOP’s first effort, it’s the fact that it runs a bit long.

The guitar work here is still ten times rangier and more inventive than you'd expect, but it takes a few very professional steps back, nailing down its snappy flourishes amid ecstatic "whoo!"s, new-wave poses, and occasional clouds of glitter and confetti.

Now they’re back, back, back (repetition absolutely necessary) with a second dose of barely-pubesced raucousness and, a mere two spins down the line, DiS is seriously reconsidering the prospect of having children, like, ever.

Get Awkward's forced rhymes and attitude sound almost calculated. [Apr 2008, p.92]

By riding high on punchy impulses, Get Awkward ends up being a solid follow-up even if it doesn’t sound as instantly re-playable as the band’s charismatic first LP.

Thankfully, if anything differentiates the terrific Get Awkward from its hardly inauspicious predecessor, it's that this one may be even less complicated. Whereas the debut made room for actual relationships and a couple of headlong jams, this is a tighter, blunter assault, affording Pearl only just enough room to summarize B-movie plots or super-soak society.

There's plenty of kicks left over, but it tilts the impression of the band. The Teen Beat questionnaires that come in the disc jacket (What's your favorite color? What's your shoe size?) and the shortened tracklist end up emphasizing the nerdiness over the jerkiness.

By mid-disc, 'Bitches Leave' and 'Bummer Time' have turned lukewarm-bratty, as the remainder of the album stumbles between self-destruction, self-reflection, and breaking shit, and not in a real cohesive way.

They've managed to inject 15 punk songs with youthful energy and just enough variety to keep things interesting, crafting a goofy, yet determined record.

This means that even though Get Awkward starts at a frenetic pace and pretty much keeps slapping you about the face for the next half hour--there’s hardly a song that goes above 2-minutes-30--it doesn’t feel like an assault.

Singer and girl-Iggy Jemina Pearl's the star, bringing admirable conviction to her tales of boredom, drug-taking and, in the case of the Perky 'Food Fight,' "extra cheese in your face." [Apr 2008, p.102]

Unfortunately, creativity is nonexistent on Get Awkward. [Spring 2008, p.82]

Jemina Pearl's voice is compelling, ensuring Be Your Own Pet sound like a candy-coloured, pocket-sized Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [may 2008, p.87]

While the band is ferocious and tight, Pearl in particular has attained force-of-nature caliber formidability, not just in the burgeoning mastery of her commanding rapid-fire squeal, but in her frankly sexual gaze and world-devouring disdain for all things not awesome.