From America with an English accent, the opposite of what it was a few yeas ago...
A soft and stripped-down collection of songs that come at you at a leisurely pace reminiscent of the other side of Britpop and the 90s: the Pavement/Morrissey side. And yet this band are through and through American. But there's bit of the New York scene in there if you listen, between the Coldplay-esque piano arrangements of 'On The Dance Floor' seeps in Interpol stylings and in the opener and title-track 'Rotten Love' the influence of The Strokes is still left lingering round.
But they've certainly crossed the Atlantic in terms of their musicality and have adopted the ways of those on t'other side of the pond for structuring their songs and putting together this record. 'Rector Street'' is like Noel Gallagher coming out onstage for Oasis under heavy sedation and playing the back catalogue at a murmuring and slurred slow tempo, but it's nice and ethereal in that way...
James Levy on vocals and guitar has a voice like Lou Reed's but mixed slightly with that of Neil Hannon, and it works quite well on all the lilting songs that all seem just a bit too short; still, that intrinsically lends itself to the record garnering a longevity in your collection. The fun 'See Saw' is through before you got see it come and before you saw it go, but in that fleeting glimpse you knew it was good. And that's the way it is with the album, you put it on, pretty soon it's finished and you think 'I think that was good...' Those that will persevere will replay it and discover all the underlying magic of the record, and those that don't won't, and it could swing either way after its first airing. But do return unto it... it's quite worth it.
Very much combining so many elements of the modern sound and the sounds of the not-too-distant past, but standing quite apart from it all at the same time, not just clinging to some overused hook or pandering to the pro forma of that that sells in two thousand six, Levy have a good format and have found something original enough, yet similar to do, presumably, quite well from it.
To sum up their sound a listen to 'You Be Sweet' is in order, very much the meeting of The Strokes' '12:51' with The Smiths' 'There Is a Light And It Never Goes Out' and in that meeting their transatlanticism becomes quite apparent and in that becoming apparent the fact that they seem to have hit a winning formula too becomes apparent. It won't win awards, but it'll win you over for an hour or two.