MakeUpBreakUp - The Italian Nightmare

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RIYL

The Pixies
The Strokes
The Temper Trap

Release Date

08/16/2011

Label

Cozy Music

Tracklist

1. A Different Point of View
2. Eggplant
3. The Elemental Gearbot
4. Far Too Much
5. Lake Niles
6. Pretend
7. The Rescue
8. Table 11
9. What's Your Frequency
10. Without Me

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Rubbing elbows with and listening to a lot of “The” bands will likely do this to you. There’s a moment during the inauspicious opening “A Different Point of View” where a nagging doubt starts to creep around in the subconscious, coloring even repeat listens of The Italian Nightmare. It’s not nightmarish, not exactly, but in its resigned, quiet sigh there is something altogether even more terrifying: the prospect of utter and total blandness—that is to say, a cardboard record.

The subdued instrumental that follows, “Eggplant,” does little to dispel this notion, but it is a very good song in its own right. What follows is less like a mid-life crisis come to fruition in the form of an earring and a convertible, and more like dusty Sunday afternoons watching mediocre football. “The Elemental Gearbot” and “Far Too Much” should be testing patience by now, and with good reason. Listening to these tracks is like having Trent Dilfer at quarterback. We’re looking at place-settings, care-takers. In short, don’t make any mistakes and let the running game carry the offense. The problem is, there’s no workhorse back to take the pressure off the six yard dump-offs and slants.

“Lake Niles” is like a sustained drive rather than the rare big play from a ball-control offense; another instrumental, it surges forth but instead of climaxing it ebbs into “Pretend”’s delicious pop sensibilities. It’s like a touchdown on a two-yard run after a fourteen play, clock-eating drive.

Here the team hands their fate to the defense, and the appropriately titled “The Rescue” continues down the path of “Pretend,” but with a slightly more art-rock ideology and a vocal that is reminiscent of Better Than Ezra. At this point, though, the strong play of the album’s middle portion slowly slides away. The next two tracks offer little to support their strong choruses, and the conclusion of The Italian Nightmare, “Without Me,” pushes and pulls but can’t seem to peak. The disc winds down just as unassumingly as it arrived.

I don’t hate The Italian Nightmare. In fact, I don’t really feel much about it at all. I found some songs to like, but it was in a sort of passive way that I enjoyed them. Passive, passive, pass…

--Jacob Oliver

Last updated: 09/27/2011 09:29AM

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