'Mutilate Us' is an unpretentious, effortless sounding pop record which avoids the arty self indulgent potential conjured up with titles like 'Secretly Odds in Knowing Normal Worlds', or 'LeAnne, the seasons persist.', or by printing 'and if we are the ones that will cross mountains for love, then we are the ones that let love mutilate us' on the front cover under their name.
AM/FM are a duo that sounds like a solo artist who sounds like a band. Brian Sokel and Michael Parsell write, perform, produce, and design all that is Mutilate Us, and though the songs and production throughout are simple, one is aware of the hours of studio tinkering that must have gone into the process. The acoustic low tech groove (as opposed to lo-fi, which Mutilate Us isn't) is a component of each track, and AM/FM establish a sound early on that remains consistent even though a variety of musicians augment different tracks throughout.
One can hear the influence of Mr Brian Wilson (who made us all realize that there can be a glockenspiel part on most songs), with the unfunkier sides of people like Beck and Badly Drawn Boy.
The relaxed tone of the CD hides some of the more cynical sentiments within. 'You and Me at 53,' one of the outstanding tracks, seems like an update of 'when i'm 64', but where Paul (of Lennon/McCartney, or is it McCartney/Lennon) sings 'will you still need me, will you still feed me' (with us knowing the whole time that he knows the answer is yes the whole time), AM/FM's far more fatalistic 'our best times aren't coming back again, we weren't like this at 23' seems much more fitting for either song. The funny thing is, I don't think Paul would write the song any differently now than he did then.
Unexpected bonuses include a cool instrumental halfway though, entitled 'When i Died in Sebastopol', and a bonus track that immediately follows track 13, instead of the band being inconsiderate and inserting 10 minutes of silence first.
Though not for the over-caffeinated at heart, Mutilate Us is a strong but brief release that is a consistent dysfunctional listening experience. At the same time, though I wouldn't accuse them of having an identity crisis, the band definitely possesses a few conflicting tendencies that will no doubt evolve into a more cohesive sound throughout the bands subsequent releases that should be worth following.
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