Album Reviews

The Loon, Tapes n' Tapes 2006 debut, was a textbook blog success stories. On the strength of Josh Grier's fidgety lead vocal and his post-Pavement guitar noodlery, this Minneapolis quintet won over a legion of keyboard tapping tastemakers. The buzz was so deafening that it catapulted the band into the pages of Rolling Stone, onto late night TV, and into the iPod of anyone within ear shot almost over night. But with flashy successes come undesirable side effects—namely, loads of anticipation. So cuing up for Walk it Off, the band's second outing, most of the talk focused on whether or not Tapes could side-step the sophomore slump and recreate the immediacy and indie magic of their debut. But as if thumbing their noses at the suspense and speculation, Tapes emerge with a sophomore album that, in spots, matches its predecessor's ramshackled brilliance, and in others, falls noticeably short.

Enlisting the behind-the-boards help of Dave Fridmann—both the helmsmen for such take-two flops as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Some Loud Thunder, and the knob-twiddling mastermind behind a handful of Flaming Lips masterpieces—didn't do much in making the picture clearer. On try #2, the Tapes cagey energy and shakey anxiety has been turned into out-and-out bombast, levels pushed to the point of gnarly digital distortion, quirk obscured by force. On occasion, the overblown feeling is a strong suit. Album closer "The Dirty Dirty" is fittingly named, and packs more punch than anything the band has ever done, but more often than not, these songs simply lack The Loon's simple clarity. Even so, the fact remains that Grier and company are remarkably adept at writing indie pop hooks, and Walk It Off has those in spades—the wide-eyed yowling in "Hang Them All," the merry go round staccato of "Headshock," just to name a few. If only the actually songs that surrounded them weren't so hit or miss.

—Robbie Mackey
04.24.08