Ex-Boyfriends, Dear John

Ex-Boyfriends play standard loud, tight post-punk music. The band is a power trio, with everyone contributing vocals, and the songs on this record, Dear John, deal with gay-specific topics as well as more general subjects. Their sound, appropriately enough, is in the Hüsker Dü mold (they even write songs in the styles of both Bob Mould and Grant Hart), although their songs are more anthemic then either Hüsker Dü or Sugar ever were.

In the Bob vein, there are a few decent tracks, but they let lyrics weaken the songs. On the good ones, like “Him and Me” and “Well, William,” they get the balance right, but for the most part, the lyrics just get in the way. The singer likes repeating syllables for extra effect, and the effect is grating. It’s particularly bad on “Willingly” and “Relationship,” which are a lot more annoying than they would otherwise be. “Willingly” suffers from other problems, as well — the band added way too many multi-tracked vocal tricks to a melody that’s bad to begin with and can’t support them. They should have spent less time adding studio stuff and more time working on the song itself.

On the Grant side, their sense of humor isn’t quite as good as their sense of gravity. “Ollie” is supposed to be a fun song about playing games at school, but it’s just irritating. They try to turn the song into an epic, with bridges and breakdowns and raveups, but the fancy stuff doesn’t work. “Stop, Drop, Rock ‘n Roll” is supposed to be about the joys of rocking out, but they keep stopping, the same way as they did on “Ollie.” If you’re singing a song about how we should just “rock out instead,” then why is the song so involved? Why don’t you just rock out?

There’s potential on Dear John, but ultimately it’s more annoying than inspiring. With a little more polishing (or maybe less?), they should get more mileage out of their songs.