Few bands as stylistically unfocused as
Pretendo sound anywhere near as good and as exciting as
Pretendo. Sometimes the band's lack of focus sounds willful and mischievous, as on the egregiously ironic Casiotone beat and weedy vocal of "Lee." Sometimes it comes across as a stroke of genius, as on the complexly organized "Brawny Says," which starts out in a
Weezer-ish midtempo rocker mode, then lapses into a Latin-inflected chorus, then gradually builds in intensity before flowering into a rocking spaghetti western soundtrack; the Latin beat reasserts itself on the out chorus, and it all hangs together much more effectively than you can imagine from reading about it. And then sometimes the attack sharpens into brilliant post-new wave rock, as on the hooky "Cynthia," the jaggedly funky but subtly catchy "Angsti Nervosa," and the tritone-based guitar solo on "A Smoking Pipe to Dance." One of the songs is downright hilarious without sounding really jokey -- "Mandy, I Mean, Mindy" pokes gentle fun at every cloddish guy who has ever forgotten the name of a female acquaintance. Overall, this is possibly the best rock album ever to boast an average song length of more than five minutes. ~ Rick Anderson