Despite this, the sheer musicality of the tracks are gorgeously addictive with Britpop anthem-like builds as in the first two tracks, excellent employment of the guitar (on “…John Mayer”) and interesting usages of a Rhodes piano (“How to Build a Jetpack”), an appropriate organ for “The Last Time I Went to Church,” and a wonderful alt-slow dance tune “But You’re God (And I’m Me)” that’s an album standout, utilizing the trumpet, flugelhorn, and saxophone.
And overall, I prefer the group’s undeniably talented, over-achieving musical side that earned it countless plays in my car stereo but ultimately, the more I listened to it, the more I realized that I could definitely pass on some of the album’s more incessant attempts to depress with musical finger-pointing at the meaninglessness of this American life.
As in the end, other over-achievers like Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Ben Folds, Belle and Sebastian, Beck, Radiohead, Wilco, and many others have managed to wax about absurdity with a bit humor, joy, and celebration in their yarns about under achievers rather than just fixating on characters (i.e. American suburbanites) who “don’t feel like an asshole” when every other word, phrase, or chorus confirms precisely the opposite. And although unfortunately, nobody — aside from the band — gets to be in on the joke, before the punchlines all begin to blur together, it’s fitting background music with which to raise an “empty glass” or “empty whiskey bottle” and “waste a bit more time.”
Track List:
1. Pop Magic Fantastical Masterpiece
2. My Swashbuckling Days Are Over
3. Standing on the Shoulders of the Carcass of John Mayer
4. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
5. How to Build a Jetpack
6. One Hand Claps the Other
7. The Last Time I Went to Church
8. But You’re God (And I’m Me)
9. Three Cheers for the Invisible Hand
10. Juvenilia
11. Neighbors
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