Teenagers
Reality Check
(XL)

The Teenagers have been making ripples in the music pond for about a year now, putting out a killer 12” on the French label Kitsune Maison and remixing big name artists like New Young Pony Club and Chromeo. To say that I have been anxiously awaiting their debut album, Reality Check, would be a slight understatement (a few months ago you could hear me calling these guys my favorite band of the moment). But after listening to this CD for a few weeks, I am very conflicted, and still very much in love with the Teenagers.

My favorite part of this band is their self-aware style. These guys know just how cool they are, how shallow their music is and how to perfectly exploit both of those aspects. Each song is about girls, making-out, celebrities, drinking and every other trivial subject that you can imagine would come from a band called “the Teenagers”. But the simplicity of their music is what makes them so on-point; gracefully walking the line between casual cool and youthful pretentiousness.

The only disappointing factor about the album is that it did not live up to the high expectations I held for it. Though funky, most of the songs have a very homogenous sound. Rhythmic bass lines and French accents are abundant, but the songs lack spice, which we all know is the variety of life (or did I just butcher that colloquialism?).

-Joel


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