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Living With The Living

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Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

 
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Living With The Living
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Avg: 3.5 (401 ratings)

New Jersey indie icon's fifth album of tuneful, energetic punk-pop.

  • We Say...

    Review by Ira Robbins

    If the worst that can be said of nostalgic music is that it makes you miss the original — and the best that it's merely an improvement — Ted Leo is still in a class by himself when it comes to relocating and reinvigorating the fiery spirit that produced the great sounds of the '70s and early '80s. Too tuneful and structured for punk but too brashly energetic (not to mention politically charged) for pop, Leo taps back into the innocent spirit that once drove bands, both great and small, into an amorphous and stylistically diverse movement, bound together by the common belief that they should play their hearts out, regardless of possible personal benefit. The same conviction, that putting everything on the line for the abandon and joy of electric music-making is a worthwhile goal in and of itself, was just as valid to the hardcore pioneers as it was to London new wavers, Midwest post-punks, primal garage rockers and unbridled power-poppers. None of it was about taming the id or turning down the amps to become more chart-friendly or contemporary, they were simply doing what felt right, as hard and fast as they could. It yielded some really great music. And it still does.

    While there are a couple of tracks on the New Jersey indie icon's fifth album that sound seriously premeditated ("The Unwanted Things," which is sweetly sung to a dub-cut reggae beat; "The Toro and the Toreador," which might be a Culture Club oldie until Leo unfurls a crappy, speaker-shredding, Young-ian guitar solo), a lot of it feels purely felt in the most exciting sense. Leo doesn't so much channel the Clash, Jam, Soul Asylum, Squeeze, Plimsouls, 20/20 et al. (and that et al. includes some far less groovy blue-collar rockers, the kind who might not have understood the why but had the same faith; no matter), as begin from the same indignant righteousness and uncontrollable energy and build from there. On topics both personal ("A Bottle of Buckie," "Colleen") and global ("Bomb. Repeat. Bomb," "Fourth World War," "Army Bound"), the trio rips and snorts with articulate precision, scoring points with sharp lines and catchy hooks. Check "C.I.A.," the restrained "La Costa Brava" and "Who Do You Love" (which faintly resembles the Rumour's "Emotional Traffic"). "The World Stops Turning" and "The Lost Brigade" are among the highlights of an extremely strong collection.

    Produced by Brendan Canty of Fugazi, Living With the Living is remarkably loud and fast, a headlong rush that would have sent needles skittering in the vinyl age, but Leo never loses his cool, and that only adds to the power. The balance of ferocity and control, of commitment and tolerance, of love and anger, never feels like tension here. It feels like life.

  • They Say...

    Review by Corey Apar, All Music Guide

    When it comes to consistency, Ted Leo is the man. When it comes to writing songs bristling with nervy energy and sincere conviction that inspire, question, and reflect, there are only a few of his peers that can really measure up. Living with the Living marks full-length number five for Leo and his crew of Pharmacists, and it's another literate and stirring collection of songs built around his sweetly elastic voice and tightly wound guitars. On personal and human levels, he hits it all -- anger, happiness, frustration, love, uncertainty, hope, sadness, rebellion -- in songs that burst with passion and a true zest for being alive; cuts like the bright immediacy of "The Sons of Cain" and the tender Irish-flavored frolic of "A Bottle of Buckie" find Leo in top form and easily put a smile on one's face. Bitter political assertions surface like usual, yet nothing in Leo's career thus far hits quite as hard as the acerbically blunt rant of "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb." Brazen, in-your-face and stretched to the seams with seething defiance, Leo basically barks a giant fuck you to the government. It's all upfront danger and burning emotion when he spits, "Oh sure, you could mobilize a million troops...but then people start to ask questions/So when you drop in out of the white clouds in a blue sky/Don't worry about them having to see the whites of your blue eyes." The anxious pace and shout-singing make the song a definite standout, and though there are other tracks present to further vary things a bit -- the dub-inflected "The Unwanted Things," the slow-paced poignancy of "The Toro and the Toreador" -- the one fault (if you can find one at all with him) is that Leo has basically been writing the same album for the last few years. All excellent albums with stellar songs, but really, there's not much sonically to separate his records (or his pretty straightforward, by-now almost formulaic songs) out from one another. Plenty of Living with the Living measures up with his best, so it's really hard to knock such a likable guy who obviously knows his strengths and can consistently execute great songs -- sentimental and motivating, socially conscious and challenging, Leo hardly falters. Yet although his mixture of politics, heart and intelligence with taut guitars and a sweet falsetto will presumably be engaging forever (and Leo hits much more than he ever misses), it's getting hard to ignore that little voice inside that wants something more from him. Something a bit different that stretches his songwriting further and shows that he's really trying to push himself. There's no denying his talent, and five winning albums is still a hell of a streak. But Ted, we know you've got more in you.

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