So I was cruising the record store one day with my girlfriend, when I saw this record on sale for $5.97. Well ok, count me in! I had meant to pick it up anyway, so I was pleasantly suprised to find it for six measly dollars. In all truthfullness I wasn't expecting much. I had heard a few songs from their website, and of course it was better than On a Wire which I find unlistenable, but it didn't really hook me like most of their other stuff did.
I love Something to Write Home About, and find Four Minute Mile to be a very catchy record. Their cover of a Coalesce song on the split with them is absolutely amazing, and one of my favorite songs of that genre, so when this band started to go so dramatically downhill, I was bummed to say the least.
I have a good reason as to why they suck though, and it's all in the name. Get Up Kids is a name that incites thoughts of happy children, summer love, girls, and things of that nature. To put it bluntly, this band is old now. Four Minute Mile was all sort of goofy, but still serious, pop songs. Something to Write Home About was still poppy, and still about girls, but was a great progression from its predecessor. When On a Wire came out, they were already way too old and mature to be still playing the same kind of music, so it was like listening to a completely different band. They used the same producer that REM had used on some of their more popular stuff, and it went in completely the wrong direction fans wanted it to. Guilt Show is a departure back to their original sound, but is still way too produced, and still written by dudes who should be writing about their wives and kids, and for all I know are doing just that.
For the most part, the songs are upbeat and fun sounding, but still lack whatever it was that made this band so fucking amazing in the first place. I wasn't dissapointed, because I didn't expect it to be good. All I was hoping for was a better record than On a Wire, and thank God I got what I was looking for. To get my kick of Get Up Kids' related music in the future, I will stick with the old records, and the New Amsterdams, who haven't done any wrong yet.
