I want to like this band. Their first EP and album were great. I played a show with them once in a basement bar, and they were really nice, sweet people. But this album is just crap. All of this bands’ problems can be summed up to trying to hard. They’re trying too hard to write accessible songs. They’re trying too hard in the production. Jenny Lewis tries to sing beyond her range. It’s just not working.
I read something, I forget where, the person compared Under the Blacklight (fittingly so) to elevator music. Their last album I didn’t care for much, but I’d listen to it if it were on. On this album it’s difficult to get through two tracks. Musically, it reminds me of the end of the 90s when so many of the bands I liked released terrible albums and became irrelevant. This process can usually be documented by the shift of a band’s wardrobe from jeans and t-shirts to ridiculous old-timey thrift store suits.
