Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 26/01/09
Label: Major Domo

Californian quintet The Airborne Toxic Event created one of the most enjoyable online kafuffles in a long time when they took exception to the tight-fisted 1.6 rating they received at the hands of the po-faced snobbery that is Pitchfork. Leaving aside the issue of how one arrives at a score of 1.6 and not, say, 1.5 or even 1.7 (like, where did that extra 0.1 go?), all credit to the band for penning the kind of eloquent riposte that would take Liam Gallagher 300 years to compose if he was left in a room with a keyboard and competing with three monkeys and their typewriters attempting to re-write the works of Shakespeare.

But what of the music? As displayed by this tale of failing to get your leg over with the object of your desire, The Airborne Toxic Event know how to emote on an Olympian scale but what prevents this from descending into a slough of self-centred despair is their ability to create an impending sense of tension that grows steadily over its five minutes. Though they'd love to be Arcade Fire, this is what Pulp would have sounded like if they'd invented emo. Which really isn't as horrific as it sounds.

    by Julian Marszalek