The Hair, The TV, The Baby & The Band
- Imperial Teen
- Band Name: Imperial Teen
- Record Label: Merge
- Release Date: Aug 21, 2007
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93Imperial Teen have again made one of the best records of the year.
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There is much to be excited about here and virtually nothing to poo-poo.
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Shinsian popsters rejoice. Here's another dreamsicle caked with sugar sugar.
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Even when Imperial Teen reduces its sound to almost nothing, as on the hauntingly spare 'What You Do,' every instrument and voice rings out, appealingly unsullied.
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80When the Teens youthfully chime in behind sheepish disclosures, it's like they're arguing that a baby seat in the tour van doesn't have to slow down the ride. And quite often, they prove it too.
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The record is something of a rehash of "On" and a small step down from that album's focused energy and brilliant pop mechanics. [Summer 2007, p.74]
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Though the album has its fair share of songs that sound like stylish, smart, but lulling background music on first listen, The Hair the TV the Baby & the Band reveals its catchiness gradually.
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Catchy they remain on their belated fourth album--also bright, dynamic, tender, brainy, unpretentious and civilly pansexual.
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70The Teen's male/female vocal harmonies and occasional big rockin' choruses are designed to make you love them; at first this will make you hate them, then hate to love them, and finally either get over it and start bobbin' your head, or crush this album with a hammer.
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62Hair finds Imperial Teen in full-bore navel gazing mode, talking both obliquely and directly about where they are and, more importantly, how they got there.
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60It's quite fun picking off the trio's various folk-pop influences, with traces of The Mamas & The Papas, Astrud Gilberto and Natalie Merchant filtering through the mix. [Jan 2008, p.90]
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60Their fourth album is another collection of winning boy-girl-harmony-laden indie confections. [Jan 2008, p.106]
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60On this foursome's fourth collection of infectious indie pop, they downplay the sly smirking of the past. [Sep 2007, p.132]
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What saves the album from musically becoming a boring, going-through-the-motions exercise is Imperial Teen's ability to write good hooks.
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They've become lapidary masters. The trouble is, who's listening and learning?
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50Power pop must be one of the most difficult genres to maintain as you get older, because its energy and its subject matter are so tied to youth. And yet, Imperial Teen manages to pull it off a couple of times, with bouncy, shout-along songs that fall just short of their best material.
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