The most distinctive feature of Goodbye Blue Monday's second release, 2005's Help Is on the Way, may be how subdued it is. At a time when volume reigns supreme, the quartet insists on a relatively sparse, and therefore refreshing, sound built on clear instrumental separation. To wit: U2-derived guitar pluckings and ringing tones; drums pounding away towards the back, where they're supposed to be; a vocalist who, if anything, sounds a bit too timid; and, finally, new wave-styled basslines straight out of the Cure's handbook to ground it all. As such, exemplary cuts like "Painkillers in Love," "Help Is on the Way," and "This Is Your Four Leaf Clover" recall other new wave revivalists like, say, New York City's Elefant -- minus the bloated sense of pretense.
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