Album Review: Mates of State "Re-arrange Us"
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Mates Of State: Rearrange Us 
*rating* 5.3*This two person review is by Sage T. and Ethan E.*EE: So we've got the new Mates of State here eh? Why does it seem like just yesterday their new album came out....and then the last one before it. Not that they've grown tiresome...i guess I just can't believe it's already Mates of State time.ST: Yup...they release albums like clockwork, and not a regular clock....they're like one of those swiss novelty clocks...all cutesy and quaint on the outside....then BAM out shoots the surprise cuckoo and it freaks you out cause you have to spend the night in the room with the clock and the weird dolls and why do we have to spend the weekend at Gramma's it smells like a birdcage.... EE: alright sweety...calm down...we're in adult-land now so you can take a breather. Now, somewhere in there you had a point...and I think it was that you almost expect the husband and wifey duo of Mates of State to bleed preciousness...which at times they do, but they also often surprise the listener. Which I agree....now if only that surprise, like the clock, wasn't so precise and calculated.ST: Alright...I have to stop you for a second. You mention "preciousness" which, don't ask why, is something of a pet peeve of mine. That term gets tossed around without any sort of measuring stick.....Someone'll call CocoRosie "precious" while Joanna Newsom is "whimsical"...and somehow everyone understands that preciousness is a bad thing. Almost as bad as labeling a band "emo" these days. So...you need to quantify. What do you mean by "precious".EE: Alright captain wordpower....i think it's simple. When adults try to be cutesy, they walk a fine line between annoying people and having fun. When it annoys me, it's "Precious"...like Dressy Bessy. Then on the other side is just innocent, simple music, like Belle and Sebastian, or the Stars. Then on the far far other side is an implosion of inverse-preciousness that is the Fiery Furnaces. And I didn't say the Mates of State were precious...I said you assume they'd be. Happy now?ST: captain wordpower is satisfied. And it's true...on paper, husband + wife + singing together + organ + drums + lots of Oh Ohs! and Oh La Las! seems like it would get tedious. Yet, somehow, Mates of State stick EXACTLY to that formula and yet remain intriguing, catchy, and listenable. Especially on their best album, Team Boo, all those pieces become more than the sum of their parts...probably fueled the almost boundless, unhinged energy that Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel throw at every moment of every song. They push themselves, their voices, and their songs, past their limits and the music is better off for it. EE: Which is exactly the problem with this newest album. It's like all of the sudden they discovered there WERE limits...and became all self-concious about being adults who attack cute music with childlike abandon. It's like Peter Pan suddenly realizing he's wearing green tights. We weren't embarrassed by it until he was....and you know the magic flight is gonna suffer because of it.ST: Or is it like the Lost Boys realizing one day that they don't want to spend the rest of eternity going through puberty...but were unsure about this whole growing up process. Sure...being a kid is fun...but being an adult has gotta be even better? right?EE: um...no, i like mine better. But the fact remains...the Mates HAVE done some growing up lately.ST: 2 kids in two years....married life must be getting to them. And it's really too bad. Starting off the album, "Get Better" sounds like the Mates in perfect form. Catchy, sweeping, and building up and up until.....a most un-Mates of States thing happens. A string section abruptly takes over. While it works fine in the context of the song, it makes clear why they chose the album name - the Mates of States have rearranged themselves and more specifically the formula they had invented and mastered for something that, on paper, probably seemed more "mature".EE: Fancy studio production is like the ultimate temptress for every band that starts to get legitimately popular. Which the Mates have become...i mean...they were in a cell-phone commercial so indie kids had already begun their petty dismissals ST: which in and of itself is the surest sign of band popularityEE....right. But what made their albums extra good was the benefit of the doubt you gave two people playing two instruments and pushing, like you said, farther and harder than you'd think their limitations would allow. Every time I listen to older MoS albums, I feel like i'm watching a little live band in a rinky dink venue and thinking "hell...these guys are actually pretty good".ST: Exactly...and that's why I even brought up Team Boo. It was that album from which they basically wrote their own rules to success...not in the commercial sense, but as a fluffy duo band with an edge. I can appreciate them wanting to "rearrange" and test new waters or directions or maturity or whatever...but I think this album shows, you just can't have both. The now-now-now-now-nows just lack the raw punch stuck farther back in the mix..and the shout and response vocals of "Jigsaw" seem more juvenile when set against all this fancy big-person studio production...infact, alot of the signature Mates of State moments, when compared to all the glitz they've slathered on, does infact start to come off as ......can't believe i'm saying it..... precious.EE: See...I knew you'd say it. Next you'll be calling them emo.ST: In summary: Mates of State, thanks for letting us rearrange you, but if you could now start putting yourselves back together, that'd be great.
*rating* 5.3*This two person review is by Sage T. and Ethan E.*EE: So we've got the new Mates of State here eh? Why does it seem like just yesterday their new album came out....and then the last one before it. Not that they've grown tiresome...i guess I just can't believe it's already Mates of State time.ST: Yup...they release albums like clockwork, and not a regular clock....they're like one of those swiss novelty clocks...all cutesy and quaint on the outside....then BAM out shoots the surprise cuckoo and it freaks you out cause you have to spend the night in the room with the clock and the weird dolls and why do we have to spend the weekend at Gramma's it smells like a birdcage.... EE: alright sweety...calm down...we're in adult-land now so you can take a breather. Now, somewhere in there you had a point...and I think it was that you almost expect the husband and wifey duo of Mates of State to bleed preciousness...which at times they do, but they also often surprise the listener. Which I agree....now if only that surprise, like the clock, wasn't so precise and calculated.ST: Alright...I have to stop you for a second. You mention "preciousness" which, don't ask why, is something of a pet peeve of mine. That term gets tossed around without any sort of measuring stick.....Someone'll call CocoRosie "precious" while Joanna Newsom is "whimsical"...and somehow everyone understands that preciousness is a bad thing. Almost as bad as labeling a band "emo" these days. So...you need to quantify. What do you mean by "precious".EE: Alright captain wordpower....i think it's simple. When adults try to be cutesy, they walk a fine line between annoying people and having fun. When it annoys me, it's "Precious"...like Dressy Bessy. Then on the other side is just innocent, simple music, like Belle and Sebastian, or the Stars. Then on the far far other side is an implosion of inverse-preciousness that is the Fiery Furnaces. And I didn't say the Mates of State were precious...I said you assume they'd be. Happy now?ST: captain wordpower is satisfied. And it's true...on paper, husband + wife + singing together + organ + drums + lots of Oh Ohs! and Oh La Las! seems like it would get tedious. Yet, somehow, Mates of State stick EXACTLY to that formula and yet remain intriguing, catchy, and listenable. Especially on their best album, Team Boo, all those pieces become more than the sum of their parts...probably fueled the almost boundless, unhinged energy that Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel throw at every moment of every song. They push themselves, their voices, and their songs, past their limits and the music is better off for it. EE: Which is exactly the problem with this newest album. It's like all of the sudden they discovered there WERE limits...and became all self-concious about being adults who attack cute music with childlike abandon. It's like Peter Pan suddenly realizing he's wearing green tights. We weren't embarrassed by it until he was....and you know the magic flight is gonna suffer because of it.ST: Or is it like the Lost Boys realizing one day that they don't want to spend the rest of eternity going through puberty...but were unsure about this whole growing up process. Sure...being a kid is fun...but being an adult has gotta be even better? right?EE: um...no, i like mine better. But the fact remains...the Mates HAVE done some growing up lately.ST: 2 kids in two years....married life must be getting to them. And it's really too bad. Starting off the album, "Get Better" sounds like the Mates in perfect form. Catchy, sweeping, and building up and up until.....a most un-Mates of States thing happens. A string section abruptly takes over. While it works fine in the context of the song, it makes clear why they chose the album name - the Mates of States have rearranged themselves and more specifically the formula they had invented and mastered for something that, on paper, probably seemed more "mature".EE: Fancy studio production is like the ultimate temptress for every band that starts to get legitimately popular. Which the Mates have become...i mean...they were in a cell-phone commercial so indie kids had already begun their petty dismissals ST: which in and of itself is the surest sign of band popularityEE....right. But what made their albums extra good was the benefit of the doubt you gave two people playing two instruments and pushing, like you said, farther and harder than you'd think their limitations would allow. Every time I listen to older MoS albums, I feel like i'm watching a little live band in a rinky dink venue and thinking "hell...these guys are actually pretty good".ST: Exactly...and that's why I even brought up Team Boo. It was that album from which they basically wrote their own rules to success...not in the commercial sense, but as a fluffy duo band with an edge. I can appreciate them wanting to "rearrange" and test new waters or directions or maturity or whatever...but I think this album shows, you just can't have both. The now-now-now-now-nows just lack the raw punch stuck farther back in the mix..and the shout and response vocals of "Jigsaw" seem more juvenile when set against all this fancy big-person studio production...infact, alot of the signature Mates of State moments, when compared to all the glitz they've slathered on, does infact start to come off as ......can't believe i'm saying it..... precious.EE: See...I knew you'd say it. Next you'll be calling them emo.ST: In summary: Mates of State, thanks for letting us rearrange you, but if you could now start putting yourselves back together, that'd be great.
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