The Babies – The Babies s/t

2010 saw the first releases from THE BABIES – two equally awesome and charming 7″ records, both crammed with a near five minutes of sun-shining indie pop and dangerously catchy hooks. Now they’re back once again, only this time with a much-needed full length release.

By now you probably already know the story here, so I’m not even going to get into that. If you’re curious by what that means, then you should start here. But any who, since the formation of the band and the release of their first 7″ records, the Babies have been momentarily silent up until about now. The release of their self-titled LP is now upon us, due out on vinyl format by the end of March from Shrimper Records. Included on that record are eleven tracks, three of which are recycled from past Babies singles, while the rest are all more or less brand new. The songs cover a variety of influences, generally sticking to the pop side of the fence, but there’s other smaller elements of punk/ post-punk (“Personality”, “Meet Me in the City”), indie rock (“Sunset”), and maybe even the slightest bit of country-folk (“Voice Like Thunder”, “Sick Kid”) sprinkled on here and there if you want to get picky.

This makes it hard to pick just one solid song to represent the album, because they’re all a bit different in their own way. Either way, the good spirited boy-girl vocals are always going to be there to warm your heart, which is definitely something worth smiling about, and as this thing plays out, you’ll probably notice that. Most of these numbers are catchy as anything, and there’s almost a guarantee that a handful of these are bound to get stuck under your skin as the lyrics constantly win you over. They get nostalgic at times, like in “Breakin’ the Law” when they make everything seem so harmless and pure.

Some other things worth mentioning are how some songs come through with unexpected grandiosity – a “progressive pop” attitude if you will – referring to “Wild 1”, “Wild 2”, the opener “Run Me Over” and the closer “Caroline”. It’s hard to call these pop songs, because they’re something a bit greater than that – they’re much more in-depth than your typical pop song, and the approach to the songs varies from track to track. “Run Me Over” is an ecstatic introduction to the record, which should easily get you up and moving and curious about what’s still to come later. Driven by Kevin Morby’s frantically mutated guitar licks, this one proves what this group is capable of.

You also can’t forget about the simplicity and innocence that comes along with some of these songs. Like “All Things Come to Pass” with it’s glistening pop charm, or “Meet Me in the City” with it’s gorgeous boy-girl vocal harmonies, wonky bass lines and eerie guitar hooks. It’s really difficult to deny such an honest and genuine song like “Meet Me in the City”, which captures that feeling from the beginning stages of an up-and-coming relationship quite nicely. You just want to wail along with the frantic vocals as they hover over the sharp guitars.

Check out the tracks from the record below, which were each considered to give you a firm idea on what this thing has to offer! See ya tomorrow!

Run Me Over –

Meet Me in the City –

Sick Kid –

Wild 1 –

Caroline –

My Rating: 8/10
Genre/ Tags: Pop, Indie Rock, Post-Punk
The Babies s/t: Tracklist:
1.) Run Me Over
2.) Sunset
3.) All Things Come to Pass
4.) Voice Like Thunder
5.) Meet Me in the City
6.) Personality
7.) Breakin’ the Law
8.) Sick Kid
9.) Wild 1
10.) Wild 2
11.) Caroline

PRE-ORDER the LP directly from Insound
or
BUY it early on cassette tape – limited to 200 copies !
The Babies on Myspace – listen to “Breakin’ the Law”!
The Babies w/ Titus Andronicus Live in Philadelphia (04/15/10)
Meet Me in the City 7″/ All Things Come to Pass 7″