Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is a group of four guys that got their start messing around in an attic. They chose their name as a joke to impress some girls. But with their third album, Let It Sway, these guys are demanding to be taken seriously.
Let It Sway follows their last two albums Broom and Pershing, which were well-received within the blogosphere but never made too big of a splash otherwise. This release is filled with songs that could easily become mainstays on those radio stations that occasionally play Death Cab or MGMT. Not that that was their aim. Philip Dickey and the guys still have that just-messing-around vibe that got them started. It just so happens that what results is, more often than not, effortlessly brilliant.
The album begins with the aptly named “Back in the Saddle.” Their sound hasn’t changed at all, but somehow theses songs are even catchier than their other stuff. The first half of the album flies by with standouts like “Sink/Let It Sway” and “Everlyn.” The songs are upbeat and high energy, complete with hand claps and “na na na” choruses. SSLYBY is your quintessential indie band, but even with 15 songs this time around, they never get too cloying, like, say, Bishop Allen or Vampire Weekend. There’s enough rock edge to keep it interesting.
That edge is best found on “All Hail Dracula!” which is just as raucous and playful as the title suggests, “Critical Drain,” which light-heartedly pokes fun at the music press, and “Cardinal Rules,” possibly the best song on the record that gives the band their groove back after a few lackluster tunes toward the end of the album.
Chris Walla, of aforementioned Death Cab for Cutie fame, produced this record and the stylistic details added are definitely a plus. But some of the charming piano ballads, such as “Stuart Gets Lost Dans Le Metro” and the acoustic first half of “Bended” would have been better served with Broom-era production – or lack thereof. The songs off their debut sounded more intimate, which is why so many listeners fell in love with the band in the first place.
Not that the intimacy is completely lost this time around. “This is for us, not them, I swear. This is for you and me,” Dickey sings in a whisper on “Stuart Gets Lost.” These two are obviously having a moment, and we can just be glad he’s letting us listen in.
