Oscar Buzz: Who's ahead in this year's key races?
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Album Stream: Listen to Mindy Smith's Christmas album My Holiday
Childlike call-and-response vocals, ecstatic, shiny dance-floor sensibilities and enough hooks to reel in an entire sea of club-going teenagers buoy this debut full-length release from Jacksonville, Fla. quintet Black Kids. The band hits hard with the follow up to its 2007 demo EP Wizard of Ahhhs, which previously released four of the tracks on this new LP. Black Kids first experienced a massive hype wave last year in the U.K., then eventually in the States, despite having no proper record and being largely unable to afford any real promotion. Having finally nailed down solid support and with settling levels of backlash, Partie Traumatic largely makes good on the band's early promise with dance-pop anthems like "I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)" and the standout "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance."
Black Kids borrow from seemingly every genre intended to be the soundtrack to a good time, from disco to new wave to electro. As they explore these styles, they stick to the subjects that surround the party-going life. While much of the record's lyrical content recycles top 40 disco subject matter like the social dynamics of one-night stands or loneliness on a Friday night, occasionally some couplet stands out as carefully crafted pop poetry. Two of those include "Don't be scared to fall in love 'cause you don't like heights," from "Listen To Your Body Tonight," and "This jungle is massive / So please don't be so passive / Be aggressive / Impress us / And they will get the message," from "Partie Traumatic." Admittedly, these lyrics don't look terribly impressive in print, but they're wedged into guitar- and synth-driven pop melodies the likes of which don't come around often.
Whereas so much in pop recycles predictable chord progressions to create satisfying tension and resolution, Black Kids utilize party-song clichés instead ("You're too much sugar for my sweet tooth" from "I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)") to the same end, leaving the variety and inventiveness to the instruments. Even those more obvious turns of phrase have a guileless charm that makes them irresistible. Black Kids seem impatient with anything less than direct, and Partie Traumatic serves as an effective protest against anything circuitous or muddled. "Goddammit, girl, just love me already!" lead vocalist Reggie Youngblood demands in "Love Me Already," one of the record’s dozens of unpretentious, relatable sentiments.
"I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance" stands tall as this album's finest, one of the songs re-released from Wizard of Ahhhs. Sporting infectriously catchy melodies and gender-bending lines like "You are the girl that I've been dreaming of ever since I was a little girl" (sung by a dude), the song is a quintessential toe tapper.
Moving basslines and driving, bouncy drumming run under brass backing, bright keys and group-sung vocal harmonies throughout Partie Traumatic's joyous entirety. Black Kids will have you humming their tunes under your breath. That is, if you're not wailing them in your car, volume cranked, inhibition long gone.
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It was actually in the US that they broke, not the UK. They were not just virtually, but completely unheard of before they played Athens Popfest 2007 in Athens, GA. Their EP had not even been released by that point.