Indie Pop
Anyone who has ever started a band, even if it only existed in their imagination will know that the most important element is not the music that they play, the genre that they aim to fit in to or how they are going to get their first gig, but what they are going to be called. This can make or break a band. This can be difference between the dizzying heights of stardom and the odorous lows of the toilet scene. This is everything. For example, it is doubtful that Nirvana would have achieved such mainstream success if they had stuck their original monicker, 'The Inbreds'. The entire English vocabulary is at any musicians' disposal, yet this is not even enough for some young bucks who have began to use 'eccentric' punctuation, such as Hadouken!, Does It Offend You, Yeah? and ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead.
Taking all of this into consideration, the fact that Voluntary Butler Scheme have thrown three random words together into a seemingly throwaway phrase appears to be either irreverently lazy or calculated intelligent internet marketing from a Google key-word advisor. Judging from their music, it is most likely the former, as there is little chance of anyone trawling the internet for Voluntary Butler Scheme, unless it is a tired housewife seeking affordable help around the home. After a 24-second intro of wind instrument musak combined with a playback recording of a middle-aged woman describing what she often chooses for breakfast, 'At Breakfast Dinner Tea' treats the listener to what is quite probably the most disposable album one can hope to hear.
'Trading Things In' is a whimsical country-indie love letter to an imaginary girl who is serenaded with promises that, “If you were broccoli, I'd turn vegetarian for you”; how could anyone resist? It would appear that the lackadaisical approach that they adopted to choose the band's titles continues to lyric writing; it literally sounds as if the lead singer was voicing his thoughts in key on whatever was crossing his mind at the point when he stood in front of the microphone. As if to accentuate the ridiculousness of the song's words, the singer's verses are echoed by a backing singer; with lines like “Just like coffee and tea, I need you regularly”, hearing them once is quite enough.
The rest of the album is not really worth a mention; the song's structures, melodies and embarrassingly twee lyrics all continue in a similar vein, with country-tinged harmonies joining the standard indie fare provided by the band. It's almost as if the whole concept is an in-joke that nobody outside of the band gets; well, if this is the case, and the band are looking to build a career out of such kooky hilarity, then the Voluntary Butler Scheme can laugh all the way to the back of the dole queue.