The Temper Trap: Conditions

As I suffered through a significant hangover this past weekend, I had a chance to reevaluate my sense of youth and reflect on my most recent offerings. Astonished that Mr. J hasn’t brought much more than Chinese-Pop and Smithsonian Folk collections to the table, I felt it was time to put the word out to friends who firmly grip the musical world and embellish my PasileyTunes authority. This week’s addition comes straight from my long time colleague Banana of the Mountains. 

The Temper Trap is a group of four (sometimes five) Brit-Popers (formally Ausi-Poppers). After combing through hundreds of YouTube videos, it became apparent that these guys are not just coffee-shop locals, but actual super-stars on a mission… to rock… the pants… off your daughters. Cuidado. Their album Conditions seems to speak to this quite plainly with an upbeat sound developing bits and pieces of dynamic vocals and household percussion that, after ten songs gets a bit.. squeaky. As for recommendations, BoM‘s favorite is a well known ditty featured in the soundtrack of 500 Days of Summer, Sweet Disposition, while my favorite after an album once-over seems to be their lead-in track Love Lost.

As I listen to this album, I can’t help question my sense of fascination with the music. I’ve doubled checked, and there is no sitar (the number one culprit for intrigue) and then I ponder,  ‘perhaps their music is striking because I’m looking at a very striking album cover featuring a very strange girl… silently judging me, the listener… and perhaps you too.’ Well, it’s no coincidence, they’re called Trap for a reason, and this is just one more of their crafted snares, set to provoke your daughters. Cuidado otra vez.  As it turns out, after some not so significant internet researching, I learned the photo is of an Afghan refugee (of no relation to the band) by Steve McCurry (of the Sharbat Gula photograph, think National Geographic Green Eyes). Oddly enough, this photo was second choice for the band, right behind the photo of a mysterious young girl who’d witnessed the collapse of the Twin-towers on TV. Evidently the band is seeking-out emotional provocation, so I’ve included a list of possible album covers for their next ten albums.

This exhausts my understanding of western modern music, so I’ll leave you to enjoy the new tunes as I eagerly await a truer album review by the reader.

  [itunes id=”334253590″]