It's about damn time an indie pop track reached the top of the charts. I was getting kind of tired of throwing a few of my favorite pop artists under the bus for their bad efforts...
Leave it to an contradictory genre like indie pop to grind my gears again. That's right: This week's problem is brought to you by Neon Trees.
First time I heard of Neon Trees was when their name appeared on the SXSW 2010
lineup, and then shortly thereafter in the Edgefest 20 lineup.
It
doesn't seem like they were remarkable enough to mention in Pete's
review of Edgefest 20. In his defense, they were up against Hole and and that
seconds-long mash up of Metric and Deftones.
Anyway, it seems they've also covered a
certain pop star's hit song, "Darling."
Neon Trees' big hit
track, though, "Animal," has been around through the summer and is quietly
creeping up the charts, helped along by a prominent base of fans who
each seem to think they're the only ones who've heard of them.
When I
first heard the track, I thought it sounded like a few Killers fans got together to bring
back their favorite band's old sound--and adding in a little OK Go along
the way. Yeah, based off the track "Animal," you could say the band sounds a bit derivative.
But that's not the worst part: One of my big indie pop pet peeves is when a lead vocalist puts on an accent.
So when I heard a kiddie lisp that sounded like "awfaid" in two lines, I
recoiled. I say if English is your first language--and you're not from a
linguistically unique area--lose the accent.
At least there's one
thing about the band that's ahead of the curve--lead singer
Tyler Glenn's hairstyle. He looks like a younger version of that rich,
evil dude from the Fifth Element. So maybe all isn't lost?
