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ADULT., "Gimmie Trouble"

The latest album from ADULT. is a fun collection of punchy electro tracks. Gimmie Troubleis more polished than previous releases and ADULT. sound more sure ofthemselves now that they have expanded to a trio. The album stumbles alittle but could be the start of something bigger and better from them.



Thrill Jockey
 
Gimmie Trouble starts off promisingly enough, the title trackstomps along to its retro sounding drum machine as the guitar andsampler jerk about around the simple beat. Kuperus’ vocals are asmelodramatic as ever. The album continues in the same style and as thealbum goes on I found that Kuperus’ voice started to wear thin. Hereccentric pronunciations and diction were quirky at first but aftermultiple listens of the album it lost its charm. What I can't fault heron is sounding distinctive and full of conviction, something which alot of vocalists lack.

New member Samuel Consiglio provides the guitar on Gimmie Trouble.He borrows heavily from players like Rowland S. Howard and Keith Levenewithout adding anything distinctive to his licks. In fact, the meolodyin the final track “Seal Me In” sounds like it was lifted directly from“Wild World” by The Birthday Party. The post-punk chic of the guitardoes however fit in with ADULT.'s aesthetic considering all the drummachines sound like they belong to the age where you were lucky to haveany more than 8 samples in a box the size of a laptop.

ADULT. for me work best in small doses. I would gladly play a track or two off Gimmie Troubleat a DJ gig, any of the songs on this disc would get a dance floormoving. However as an album the songs are too similar to each other andthis makes listening to the album in one sitting a tedious job. Aslight bit of variation would have made this a far better album.Perhaps I’m being too critical as there are some great songs on it like“Disappoint the Youth” and “Helen Bach,” which are both first ratetracks. Gimmie Trouble is no masterpiece but the few standout tracks are worth a listen and the entire album can be boogied to very easily.

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