Arms Down

Rate It! Avg: 3.0 (28 ratings)
Arms Down album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 13   Total Length: 37:21

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I want to like it

knoxjon

I want to like this album, but I just don't. While it's got a few catchy songs, most of the songs just don't work; there just aren't a lot of discernible tunes to them. And there is way too much going on in each song. I'd rate it a meh.

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Softer Leo

wu

The Ted Leo comparison in the eMu review is spot on: I'd swear he was fronting this band as a less-angry-at-the-corporate-world side project. It's not so much derivitive as the singer's voice is nearly identical, performing the same sing-songy yelps Ted has done for years. Nevertheless, it is a fun, fun album to listen to. If you're a Ted fan, go for it.

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They Say All Music Guide

With a brand of indie rock that sounds like something the Dismemberment Plan or Ted Leo would play if they decided to start incorporating a keyboard in their music, Providence, RI’s Get Him Eat Him do their best to engage and entertain their audience throughout the entirety of their 13-track, 37-minute sophomore album, Arms Down. With warm vocals and melodies that stay catchy no matter how quirky they become, the band does a good job of staying down-to-earth while still moving away from simple three-chord progressions and rhythms. With lyrics that range from hipster-poetic (“Set up, you shot me up/Shot bullets and bows/Your makeup and clothes/Possession imposed/Prosaic and cold,” Matt LeMay sings in the angular “C.B.T.”) to clichéd (“I wanted your body/I wanted you on me/You tempt and you taunt me” in the jilted-lover ode “Murphy Bed”), Get Him Eat Him play good-natured, summery pop songs that manage to retain a sense of optimism and youth even when the pieces themselves are sad or deluded. Perhaps this is because the group’s style, no matter how far into the off-kilter the band ventures, is firmly rooted in hooky vocal lines and major keys and a kind of lighthearted Barenaked Ladies sensibility that sticks to the blood and guts of the songs. Arms Down is the kind of album that stays with you even if every track isn’t in itself noteworthy — which isn’t to say that there aren’t a few really fantastic ones here, “2 x 2,” “Patronage,” “Diminutive,” and the aforementioned “C.B.T.,” for example — the kind of album that can be put on repeat without sounding repetitive, a great warm-weather record that has enough lasting power to make it something worth listening to for years to come. – Marisa Brown

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