MOG

The first time I heard the Tapes 'n Tapes track "Insistor" I was instantly hooked. I immediately went out looking for more of their music, hoping that this wasn't, like some bands a fluke of a single brilliant track with everything else falling far short.

I picked up their album "The Loon" and gave it a thorough listen, quickly latching on to a few other tracks, such as Cowbell and Omaha. Since then I've listened to The Loon countless times, as background music at work, while driving in the car, or just playing around the house. In all the listens though, there remain a handful of tracks that I "hear" and the remainder of the album that never has fully sunken in. The great tracks are great, but the rest don't compare to those few and drift into the background.

Walk It Off is a different beast entirely. Upon first listening to it I did my usual quick scan through the tracks, giving each 30-45 seconds just to hear what the general sound was and see if anything really stood out. Nothing did. So then the first few listens, and still, nothing much stood out. There didn't seem to be an Insistor, or a Cowbell, nothing that jumped out as glaringly brilliant or catchy. Still, I kept listening, eventually familiarizing myself with the songs, and the album as a whole. It wasn't long before I would find myself with bits and pieces of various songs stuck in my head, and the desire to listen to the album, the whole album, as soon as I got the chance.

After a good many listens I've concluded that while there may not be anything that does for me what a few great songs did on the last album, that Walk It Off, as a whole, is a much more solid and thorough album. I'm not extremely fond of the opening track, Le Ruse, though it certainly isn't bad, but I thoroughly enjoy every other track on the album, whether upbeat or slow, and this album has become one of the few that I enjoy listening to all the way through.

So it was hard to choose which track to post with this review. Lately I've found that the final track of the album, "The Dirty Dirty" to be the track constantly stuck in my head. But it is a track with a very different sound from that of most of the album, so not entirely indicative of what to expect. So instead I'll leave you with this, Lines, another track late in the album that's a little swoon and a little rock.