The Smittens, The Coolest Thing About Love

by Carrie Dagenhard
09/09/2008

If you’re looking for the perfect album to make that slightly difficult transition from Summer to Fall, The Smittens’ latest release just might do the trick. The Vermont native twee group has crafted yet another indiepop jewel, and you can think of it as a light jacket for those upcoming chilly nights.

Perfectly titled The Coolest Thing About Love, the album plays less like a soundtrack for puppy love, and more like a reunion of high school sweethearts--tender, nostalgic, and heaps more experienced.

The record seems to follow the course of a year, with each track assigning itself a different season. It begins with road trip anthem “The Interstate” which includes finger snaps, a tambourine and the phrase “the Athens kids know how to get crunk.” The second track “Half My Heart Beats” conjures up images of cafeteria lunches, class rings, and sneaking cigarettes behind the bleachers during gym class in a Blackboard Jungle meets Gidget and Moon Doggy kind of way.

But while some tracks cater to the sweetly sentimental aspects of unrequited love, others take on qualities that are a little more dark and desperate. For example “One Hundred Roses”, expresses the inability to fully love a person without first resolving your own inner qualms. Similarly, “Magpies and Eccles Cakes” is probably the best track on the album, and, if strategically placed on a mix tape, would make your ex-lover cry.

The album also takes a break from the subject of love to dole out a sizable dose of cynicism in the track “H&M (+A).” The song combines an upbeat head-nodding melody with the verse “How many children will die today from hunger, malaria or AIDS?”, and questions about a hundred other socio-political issues in the process.

The Coolest Thing About Love proves that you can have your proverbial cheery indie pop cake and eat it with a splash of pessimism, too. Bon appetit.

Technorati Tags

Comments [post a comment]

more music

more from carrie dagenhard