Kid Down

And The Noble Art Of Irony

Written by: TL on 25/04/2007 22:44:19

Being a very trendy Swedish scene band, Kid Down have naturally conformed to a very established trend, namely sounding remarkably different on their debut album "And The Noble Art Of Irony" from what they sounded like back on their "Dead Kid Songs EP", thus just as naturally making a substantial part of their very anxious fanbase go something like "oh my god, what the f*ck happened, this blows!".

However, once carefully approached with a minimal amount of prejudice, the album quickly reveals itself as being not quite so different from said EP. Kid Down are still clearly playing at writing the great catchy pop/punk/rock anthem, just as they were in the past, only now the band has scrapped the whole passionate emo-ish feel in order to incorporate some nice and classic smartass humoristic punk-attitude, effectively becoming somewhat easier to take seriously (ironically by appearing less serious).

"A Kid Called Down" opens the album with strength and drama and drags you along in a way reminding me quite a bit of what Set Your Goals did with the first track on their last album "Mutiny!". Annoyingly the band thouroughly ruins the good first impression with the utterly failing "Cut/Paste" that despite hinting at Say Anything, ends up being so simple and straightforward it doesn't do anything for anyone. If you manage to get through that unfortunate misstep, you are however now on the verge on a nine-track offensive of almost excusively up-beat infectious and uplifting pop-punk, culminating in songs like "Split This Cake" and "Luck Comes Easy", the first of which is playfully danceable and still carrying a feeling of Say Anything to it, while the second is an anthemic reminder of the very best we used to love from Yellowcard.

The album ends with the quiet "Get Up Again-Over And Out" which is completely unnecessary as it would have kept the album living much longer in your mind if it had ended one song earlier on "On A Line", seeing as the former is the second of the only two bad songs on this record. The placement of these songs however really hurt the overall impression you get from listening to the album, and that's a damn shame. Otherwise there's only small issues to complain about here, like how the choruses bear the unmistakable touch of a young band or how the frontman's nasal voice can get a tiny bit tedious in the long run. A strong debut from the Swedes, that will quickly take up residence in your mind, and then as music of its kind tends to do, slowly fades out after a little while.

Download: "Who's Your Villain", "Split This Cake", "Luck Comes Easy", "Nothing More, Just A Lie"
For the fans of: Say Anything, Yellowcard, Set Your Goals,
Listen: MySpace

Release Date 26.03.2007
Epitaph/Burning Heart

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