The press release for the
101's third album claims that
Numbers takes its primary lyrical inspiration from a serious health crisis that singer/songwriter Eric Richter had then-recently underwent. Near-death experiences can cause any number of serious lifestyle changes, of course, but in the specific case of the
101, it seems to have caused Richter to grab for the brass ring, commercially speaking. The
101's debut album had an appealingly out of time neo-psychedelic feel, and although 2005's
Green Street was considerably more straightforward and poppy, it still had a bit of a throwback college radio sound that looked back to the jangle pop of the '80s and shoegaze of the '90s.
Numbers, on the other hand, is pure 2006, a straightforward pop-emo record that's not at all far removed from the likes of
Fall Out Boy and
Jimmy Eat World. There's nothing wrong with a slight change of artistic course, naturally, and to be fair, catchy punk-pop tunes like "Dancing" and "Mott Haven" aren't that far removed from the best of the
101's previous releases. But the lack of the quirky touches and unexpected turns of the
101's earlier albums, matched with
Ian Love's cookie-cutter production style, makes
Numbers sound distressingly safe, as if the "by the" prefix to the album title can be assumed. The
101 have proven themselves to be capable of more than this. ~ Stewart Mason