The Singles Jukebox

In which Matt Cibula reaches a new level of excellence in complimenting…

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[3.33]

Martin Skidmore: They’ve supported the Charlatans! They claim Coldplay ripped them off! Depressingly, those might be the most interesting things about them.
[1]

Chuck Eddy: Found this tolerably winsome despite its awkward off-key electro-shuffle self for the first half minute or so, believe or not. But after sitting through the remaining three minutes, not so much.
[3]

Iain Mew: I rather liked their previous single, but a voice and style as affected as this is always going to tread a fine line between sweet and cloying. Here, on something a lot less easy going, they fall very much the wrong side.
[3]

Alex Ostroff: “Radar Detector” is the musical equivalent of (500) Days of Summer and/or Garden State. Deez makes handclap-drenched bedroom pop with stereotypically adenoidal ‘indie’ vocals, and a melodic debt to Jason Falkner and Lapalco-era Brendan Benson. In other circumstances this might come off as charming, but the characters and situations are so insufferably twee and self-satisfied that you can’t help but cringe. The fifth word of the song is “Starbucks”, and the second verse features Darwin and the object of his affections (presumably played by Zooey Deschanel) falling asleep in a mattress store, which should tell you everything you need to know.
[3]

Michaelangelo Matos: Which blog do we get to blame this one on?
[3]

Matt Cibula: This probably isn’t very good, and in general I usually consider this kind of music some reprehensible shit; but I’m actually digging the Talking Heads ’77 new wave ummagumma of it all, and dude is clearly enjoying himself without limits, so cheers to Darwin Deez whoever they are. (Aw man, who am I kidding, I’m just jazzed because the Trail Blazers whipped up on OKC tonight even without our best player, this could be ball bearings rattling around inside a lawn mower and I’d probably give it at least a 5. And this is clearly two points better than ball bearings in a lawn mower).
[7]