The Get Up Kids

Item: On A Wire
Author: Matt Modrich

On A Wire

(2002)

Reviewed by Matt Modrich

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Label Vagrant RecordsDecapolisJune 2002

alternative country emo

The Get Up Kids long-awaited follow-up to 1999's "Something to Write Home About" has seemed to be years in the making. However, those years appear to have radically changed the sound of the Vagrant Records band.

It's so different that comparing bands to the GUK will never mean the same thing. It appears that the Kids have gone soft like The New Amsterdams, the side project of their singer Matthew Pryor.

Moving from the poppy emo of latter days, the Kids sound more Brit-pop or alternative country these days. Most of the songs are either ballads or played at moderate tempos with the focus on the acoustic guitar or the organ.

The first track "Overdue" is the highlight of the album. It resonates a melancholy acoustic emo/country feel. The old traces of the last album are also pleasant, like "Stay Gone" and "Fall From Grace," but the drums, guitars and vocals are noticeably less intense.

"High As the Moon" sounds like Michael W. Smith singing a poppy piano-driven song with some slick lead guitar work. Vocally "Campfire Kansas" is also an interesting experiment that sounds a lot like The Strokes.

The verse of "Let the Reigns Go Loose" is surprisingly like an R.E.M. tune, which doesn't belong on the record. The organ-driven songs like "Grunge Pig," "The Worst Idea," and "All That I Know" also don't fit with the other songs.

Overall, the Kids have grown up a lot and despite their experimental sound, they still know how to write quality songs. Unfortunately, it's just that "On A Wire" is going in too many different musical directions to be an excellent recording, but there's still half of a quality album here.