Album Review: Black Kids - Partie Traumatic

Originally published in Freetime Magazine (8/12/08)

2008 isn’t even over yet and we already have ourselves a new Vampire Weekend on our hands. We should be getting used to this whole internet exposure thing at this point, huh? Black Kids are part good band, part good salespeople. Whether they always had this sound and just sprouted out at the right time or they adapted to the current music scene, they sure smelled a trend brewing and went balls out with it on their debut, Partie Traumatic.

Considering the recent success of electro-pop on the indie scene, what with LCD Soundsystem, MGMT, !!! and the Rapture filling dance floors and shaking hipsters’ hips, it really isn’t such a shock that Black Kids have vaulted off the MySpace launch pad into the twilight in a matter of months. Like I said, they are good salespeople.

That term may seem ironic, since this whole thing started with a free EP released on MySpace. But to make, you have to spend, and Black Kids spent a lot of time convincing the blogosphere they are the next formidable flavor of the week in this candy-coated subgenre.

Flavor of the week might be a bit harsh, but Black Kids’ music is so bubblegum pop it might stick to your shoe if you aren’t careful. I can live with that, though, because this whole thing is one big anti-emo movement, anyway, and when it comes to kicking that dying musical style when it’s down, count me in!

Where do ya start? “Hurricane Jane” plays out like Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” if Cat Stevens was answering the question with “Another Saturday Night”. “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” combines Killers’ synth-fluff with a chanting chorus by the Mickey Mouse Club (not really). “You can’t treat women like hotels,” sings Reggie Youngblood on “Love Me Already.” I’m touched. Really.

Partie Traumatic is pretty fun music, but oh, God if it doesn’t make you embarrassed to listen to it in the process. Yea, they might say they are aiming for Bowie or Prince with their influences, but some of this stuff sounds like the most night feverish, leisure-suited disco of the ‘70s. It’s fun, but it’s really, really lame fun.

After listening to Partie Traumatic for the first time, I immediately had to follow it by popping in some MC5, just to reaffirm my masculinity. But ah, who am I kidding; I know the next time I’m at a party, I’ll sneakily try to plug my iPod into the stereo system and blast “I’m Making Eyes At You.”