Tweens gone wild! That’s the best way to describe Midtown Dickens’ Oh Yell! album, a set played on the porch with songs ripped straight from the playground. The Dickens are actually the grown-up duo of multi-instrumentalists Catherine Edgerton and Kym Register, but they haven’t left the school yard behind quite yet. That’s obvious from the play date activities of “Tambourine,” the tedium of spending time with one’s mom detailed in “What a Bore,” the tribute to “Tetris,” the cutesy “Eggs & Toast,” the smart-ass pay back to a rival in “Jezebel Lee,” and the gushing put-downs of “Spine.” But even when the pair move the action into high school and then off into the job world, their naïveté still shines through. How else to explain their innocent vision of “Big Screen,” a quite hilarious take on porn stardom, as seen through the wannabe eyes of a schoolboy? “Get away from it all themes,” “where should I go next” numbers, “this job sucks” songs, if they’re not betwixt and between-ies, they’re angsty teens. Albeit talented ones. Lo-fi the Dickens may well be, but name an instrument from banjo to piano, trombone to bass, and these Dickens can play it. At times the pair push towards cutesy, but like precocious kids, they’ll shoot out a lyric that just makes your jaw drop. Toss in poppy melodies, some singalong choruses, and a bucket-load of fun, and this duo will indeed have you yelling for more. – Jo-Ann Greene
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