The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme (2010)

2006’s Pet Grief was a good album, but in the subsequent years I all but forgot about this band. When this album leaked a couple months ago I was initially excited but in lieu of some other much anticipated releases, I forgot about it. Clinging to a Scheme is a more upbeat album than its predecessor, which is a good thing—the songs feel grab you more easily. This may be due to the use of an actual drummer, as opposed to a drum machine. The drumming is quite intricate at times, giving some songs a nice rhythmic feel. Mostly, the different sound is due to the synths creating a brighter atmosphere. The guitars also feel a bit more pronounced, making this feel more like a rock album. Vocals are my least favorite thing about the band. The songs are sung in a monotone, somewhat hushed voice that somehow sounds very obviously digitally processed though not especially distorted. This gives the album, as it did their last one, a somewhat mechanical feel—something that worked better on the more melancholic Pet Grief. They use more immediately tuneful melodies which are nice, and also throw a few curveballs like spoken-word passages on “Never Follow Suit.” If there’s anything worth complaining about, it’s the fact that some of the songs may come across as a bit too simple. These really try to be pop songs, and are quite melodic in places, but the vocals hold this album back from being as good as I think it could be. I think there will be better albums that make use of synth-heavy dreamy pop music, in the near future.

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