Treasure Mammal, You Wish I Was Channeling Your Spirit

You ever fall hard for somebody who you know is really, truly not your type, but there’s something weirdly attractive about them, some quirky thing that makes you look past what your brain’s telling you and convince yourself they’re The One for you? And then, after a year or three’s gone by, you run into ’em again and cannot fathom what in the hell you were thinking that first time around?

Treasure Mammal’s You Wish I Was Channeling Your Spirit is like that for me, I’m afraid. 2004’s Secret Treasures managed to worm its way inside my skull, knocking down my defenses with its over-the-top exuberance and total disregard for the rules of pop, rock, or whatever the hell this stuff actually is. With that in mind, I was actually looking forward to Spirit.

‘Til I put it in the CD player, anyway. At that point, my interest quickly morphed into what-the-hell-was-I-thinking horror. The noisier, chipped-and-scratched edges of Secret Treasures have been mostly sanded away this time out, leaving behind twelve or so tracks of primarily unbelievably cheesy, goofy electro-pop that makes no sense about half the time (the good half) and is insipid for the rest. Some points on here are entertaining, I’ll admit it, like the screechy “Pterodactyl Girlfriend,” the raw/bluesy “Peer Pressure,” and Western-sounding “Rio Grande,” in particular.

They’re undermined almost immediately, though, by sappy faux(?)-feel-good songs like “Best Friends Forever” and “Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” which meld Treasure Mammal frontman Abe Gil’s apparently real-life motivational speaking with synth-pop. With regard for the latter, I’m going to go out on a limb and declare that any song with a line about getting “a full tank of confidence” deserves to be destroyed.

The comparison I just can’t freaking get out of my head is to the campy, utterly ridiculous videos and songs of Liam Sullivan (think “Shoes” and “Text Message Breakup”). Imagine that guy from DFA wearing the goofy Kelly wig and singing, and you’re pretty much right there with me (except that I’m fairly sure Gil’s totally serious about most of this). And y’know, that’s not a comparison you really want to aim for.