CD of The Week

The thing that I’ve always loved aboutThe Wombats is their ability to create fun, silly indie pop songs. You could always hear front man Matthew Murphy singing about random (and unserious) things like clubbing, uniforms, dates gone wrong, strippers and prostitutes, etc. Prior to everyone one of their releases, I always get worried that maybe this new record will be the one they stop being silly and start growing up. With their third record Glitterbug, and first without the “The Wombats Proudly Present...” subtitle, it certainly seems like they’re heading in that direction.

This group of songs seems to fall into the “romantic” category for the most part. The very first track on the album is “Emoticons,” and it talks about ending a relationship. That leads in to “Give Me a Try,” which is essentially about a long distance relationship, and how he misses the girl. “Greek Tragedy” is, once again, about a difficult relationship. And the record just goes on from there. It certainly seems that The Wombats have grown up a tad. No strippers? No drugs? No partying? No one can stay young forever, I suppose.

As for the actual music on the record, they’ve definitely synth-ed up their songs a tad. This is most prevalent on the fourth track “Be Your Shadow,” which very much reminds me of something from the latestTegan and Sara record. This isn’t a bad thing though. The Wombats have always used electronic sounds in their music, and this is taking it to another level. Perhaps this was the idea of Mark Crew (Bastille) who worked with The Wombats on most of the songs.

Overall, this is another positive record from The Wombats. Murphy still sounds great vocally, the songs are still dance-y, they’re just a little more grown up. It appears the band is trying to make progress as a unit, and you can’t fault them for that. If you miss the “old” Wombats, all it not lost with this new record. “The English Summer” and “Pink Lemonade” will take you back in an instant. Don’t miss The Wombats when they bring their wildly entertaining show to Union Transfer on April 23rd. (And vote for this week’s Top 11 @ 11countdown for a chance to win a pair of tickets!)