Everyone's favorite DIY lovy-dubbies Mates of State are back once again to bring you more infectious pop tunes in the form of Re-Arrange Us, but something's a little different this time, and I don't know how I feel about it. Leaning toward thier latter releases, the new album comes across more like a girl group, relying heavily on Kori's high end, with Jason bringing mostly well meshed, tight backup vocals to the table. Their songs of late continue veering away from their ADD tempo / melody mash-ups and more toward cohesive, albeit less intriguing fair, though they do spice things up this go around with more varied instraments including guitar, acoustic piano and glockenspeil, as well as a wholly bigger sound. When it comes to Mates of State, though, I think I'll always be a purist, wanting every track to sound like they recorded it in one take in their spare room, just drums, keys, and a lot of love. Or I'd just like to hear every new record as an 18 year old.
I haven't been able to fully absorb Re-Arrange Us (which still only brings to mind the chanting chorus of some Radiohead song off Amnesiac, I think) yet, but so far I'll just say I like it, and this video definitly helps. MoS has had some remarkably cheezy and downright bad music videos in the past, as well as some great ones, and this falls into the latter. Sort of sad, while entirly whimsicle and charmingly, I'll say it again, DIY; Get Better is pretty invocative of the rest of Re-Arrange Us sonically. Check it out. I doubt they will ever top My Solo Project, but I sure hope they never stop trying.