The Little OnesThese Little Ones have some growing up
to do
Dropped by Astralwerks, after having
recorded only one EP last year, this LA-based band recently caught
the attention of Chopshop Records with a winsome sunshine-y sound
that often recalls ’70s-pop staples like The Raspberries, Big Star
and Badfinger. But unlike their forebears, The Little Ones haven’t
yet realized that the key to really good power-pop is to underpin it
with a little darkness and angst, with some eccentric pathologies and
intelligent narrative arcs. Instead it seems like The Little Ones
found some of the Flaming Lips’ animal suits discarded in a
dustbin, put them on, and spent the next 11 songs spinning
relentlessly cheerful yarns that blur together like the lines of an
epic poem—a cartoonish rock Iliad sung in freakish, sped-up unison.
Creating a musical theme that stretches across the album isn’t a
bad idea, but The Little Ones fail to pull it off, and the songs
suffer from a frothy sameness.