I probably payed too much for this record. In my head, it should have only been $5 because I was basically buying it for one song (“Idiocy”) and a single typically costs $5. But I guess it’s worth paying an extra two bucks to get a record I’ve never listened to. Maybe there are more jams that justify this. Upon listening to Loose in the Air, I think it was totally worth $7. It’s a really, really solid indie-rock record when every other indie-rock record is trying to do something weird or different or something with more banjos. They’re not a great band, but they’re a really good band (reminiscent of the late Oxford Collapse, who never made a record I loved but always made records I liked, which is an excellent quality to possess sometimes). Apparently, John Darnielle loves this band which means that I should love them too. Not really, but most of the time he’s right (he’s my favorite and most trusted music critic). “Idiocy” is a PERFECT pop song that no one has really heard. It is perfect because it fits into my guidelines of a perfect song. That is, the verses are as catchy as choruses and the choruses are pretty much super-choruses. This is a rare thing to achieve. The New Pornographers (who played the same night as the Double in Lawrence and, following their show, went over and saw their set at the Jackpot) come close to this with most of their jams, but the closest they got was with the b-side “Graceland” (not a Paul Simon cover). “Idiocy” is better than that song, though. The rest of the album I can pretty much take or leave. It’s not bad, but I don’t see myself falling in love with it. It’s very “it’s not you, it’s me.” At the same time, it’s really fucking good. Flecks of Interpol and the Go-Betweens are strewn throughout, but mostly they sound like an indie-rock band on Matador Records.
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