The Presidents of the United States of America are back with a new album, These Are The Good Times People to be released on March 11th, 2008. It’s the first new full album from the band since Love Everybody in 2004. Hmmm, a new album after four years, in an election year no less? Could this be a campaign for re-election?
POTUSA, as they are known to fans, are known for their funny, clever lyrics matched to a pop-punk folk style music. This release is more of the same, and that’s a good thing people. The songs still sounds fresh and alive.
The album starts with “Mixed Up SOB,” the first single, and takes a ride through a lot of styles, to include folk (“Loose Balloon”), punk (“Rot In The Sun”), rock (“Fangs”), country (“Truckstop Butterfly”), swing dance (“Flame Is Love”) and funk (“Deleter”), before ending with an acoustic piece called “Loose Balloon” that is one of my favorites.
Despite being all over the map, you get a feel that this band not only can do these styles and do them well, but also enjoy mixing it up and not getting pigeonholed. Kind of reminds me of Elvis Costello, but in a good way.
Try as I might, I cannot get this CD out of my car CD player. I listen to it wherever I drive — and when you have two daughters, that’s a lot of driving. I knew it was a hit though when my five year-old didn’t ask me to change the music to Hannah Montana, and instead started singing along to “Rot In The Sun”.
I get a feeling that this band really enjoys making music together. There is a sense of fun and frolic that blends well with how truly accomplished the musicians are both individually and as a team. One reason is that in every song, you hear the music and it would not be surprising to have some sappy mainstream lyrics matched up with it. I can imagine the band members writing two versions even, just to see which they like better.
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