Twenty Pelicans: Rats Will Cry: Skeleton

Skeleton
Figurines
Control Group, 2006
Numerical Feelings: 4.0

What the hell, y'all. I know the nineties happened, like, 200 years ago for most of you, but likening these Figurine blokes to either of Pavement, BtS, or the Mouse is seriously off track, and to all three at once, which let's hope occurs solely on the little hype-card on the listening station at Tower, is like something that even a mentally handicapped child would watch, and hunch up his shoulders in apprehension and say, 'Oh -- ssssss, yikes.' Why not just compare a shopping cart to a freakin' tank? Both have wheels, yeah great there you go.

All that aside, because there's nothing wrong with being different, Skeleton, uh, seriously bites. This band takes the art of mediocrity to rare heights of perfection, presenting each song at exactly the state of development that qualified it as a song. You sense it every second -- the band thinking, 'ok, how can we develop this idea further -- oh wait, let's just play the guitar through this chord progression really fast and, yeah, do the drums like you did on the last five tracks, and we'll be good to go -- let's do that instead.' It's really quite astounding. They know exactly when to stop giving a fuck without really embarrassing themselves.

Occasionally, they do take some ideas and run with them, and some melodies possess such charm that they're hard to resist at first -- but the underlying ethic of cold calculation emerges quite unmistakable, after a few listens. The grander songs are just the product of the band saying, ok and now let's make a grand pop epic out of this one -- ready go. The more distinctive hooks are also the most distastefully obvious. Skeleton is tin pan indie pop. I wonder that it hasn't received more resentment as such.

-6.24.2006