The Get Up Kids - There Are Rules

Nothing quite prepares the listener for the insipid snooze-a-thon...

Posted Tuesday, 1 March 2011 in

The Get Up Kids

Rating: 5

Unfortunately, whatever rules The Get Up Kids are referring to with their first full-length release in seven years, they appear to have ignored perhaps the most important of all: play to your strengths. Suffice to say, the once-beloved Kansas City quintet are not Radiohead, and whilst they may have left their pioneering, emo-infused pop-punk behind over a decade ago, nothing quite prepares the listener for the insipid snooze-a-thon they’ve concocted here. Sure, they have their perkier moments – ‘Regent’s Court’ or ‘Birmingham’, for example – but even these are little more than credible facsimiles of a hundred mid-00s electro-tinged indie rockers. Disappointing.

Pete Withers

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