Re-arrange Us was an album I'd meant to pick up last year but never quite got around to. When the hype push for the record hit it seemed like every blog put up a different track, so without really trying I picked up six of the ten songs. That was enough to sate me for a while—I "got" it.
But then the other day, it got me. It was "Blue and Gold Print" that did it. It came up on shuffle and just sort of slammed into me. I had the song stuck in my head for the last week so yesterday I downloaded (legally!) the rest of the record.
It didn't take long for the full record to sink in with me, not just because I knew half of it already but also because it's incredibly similar to their last album, 2006's Bring it Back. That's not such a bad thing; it's an album that I find myself itching to hear every few months, if only because I need to hear "So Many Ways." So now I think the same thing's going to happen with this record.
My enjoyment—love?—of Mates of State is a little uncomfortable, though. They're just shy of brilliant. They have fantastic harmonies but just as often float flat or sharp; their song structures are often imaginative but in the context of an album can feel samey; their melodies are unstoppable but their lyrics are often clumsy.
Man, but when they hit, they fucking hit. Their albums are like a bag of candy: all at once, it can get heavy, but one or two at a time it's as sweet as can be.
- Mates of State: Blue and Gold Print
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