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Nov 11, 201080Some people might Matt & Kim's music is without substance, totally incapable of being a sustainable addition to the sonic landscape. I submit that their saccharine hooks, covered in a coating of post-adolescent confusion, is just the opposite.
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Nov 1, 201080Even emo and chamber music get roped into Sidewalks' exclamatory gush, verifying that there truly is no sound these two won't use to support their almost religious commitment to spreading huge grins.
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Nov 1, 201080With little more than plinking and repetitive, if deliriously catchy keyboard riffs, straightforward dance-punk beats, and jocular vocal whimsy, their third record keeps the party going hard - even if it's more the cake-and-ice-cream variety.
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Jan 7, 201176Other than a few missteps, Sidewalks displays a calmer, more self-assured band that seems to have graduated from a one-note "new-wave White Stripes" shtick.
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Nov 1, 201075On Sidewalks, Matt and Kim seem intent on capturing the curious with a bigger, more pumped-up sound: Check the booming hip-hop beat on ''Cameras'' and the parade-ready horn blasts that take ''Ice Melts'' into rowdy jock-jam territory.
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Nov 10, 201072Catchy verses and get-your-hands-up chants are layered among '80s synth and keyboard lines on these 10 tracks.
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Mar 29, 201170For a record that veers between hit and miss, there is a certain amount of charm and vibrancy that keeps one coming back for more.
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Nov 22, 201070While the recipe seems simple-squiggly synths and catchy keyboard earworms mixed with an all-over-the-place beat-Matt & Kim throw magic dust into their drinking water.
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Nov 3, 201063Sidewalks often inflates the worst attributes of Matt & Kim's big sound (overly simplistic lyrics, crude synth melodies, shouty singing) and smothers much of its sugar-rush energy and joyously defiant attitude in studio flourishes.
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Apr 13, 201160Clever, costly videos prove the couple painfully hip, but close your eyes and it could be Mel & Kim. [May 2011, p.91]
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Mar 29, 201160The blueprints of a fun time are here; the melodic and rhythmic groundwork is all in place. All we need now is to have Matt and Kim bring this ruckus in person, rather than through the middleman of mp3.
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Dec 16, 201060Matt and Kim deserve albums that sound clean and ambitious, but in all of Sidewalk's studio processing, their endearing personalities--decidedly brash, raw and awesome--unfortunately aren't well-represented. [Jan 2011, p.93]
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Nov 5, 201060These two have always been more about energy than depth, more about the bobbing head than the stationary keyboard. Let's hope it stays that way.
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Nov 2, 201060What comes through on Sidewalks more than anything else is a sense of optimism.
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Nov 1, 201060Matt and Kim has lost a bit of their musical soul in attempting to reconcile their rough, campy sound with mass-appeal polish, and as a result, Sidewalks lacks a considerable amount of the bite of its predecessor.
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Nov 10, 201058The album is awash in synths, Kim's drums are allowed to gather dust, and the indie-pop sounds more akin to, well, regular pop. As with previous efforts, Sidewalks doesn't mind starting with dessert, even if that means appetites will be spoiled for the lesser delights that follow.
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Nov 5, 201050The Brooklyn lovebirds stick to what they do best on their third album, which reprises the formula that made their previous record, Grand, an underground success.
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May 18, 201140An over-thought approach, however leaves Schifino's drumming feeling restrained while Johnson's nasal, perma-positive vocals are overzealous. [May 2011, p.119]
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Apr 4, 201140If Sidewalks is husband-and-wife duo Matt and Kim's vision of a perfect night on the tiles, then partying with them must be hellish.