Feel good albums are a tricky thing. Every time I put one on, I dig all over it for a couple of listens, and then I feel kind of dirty for listening to something so obviously happy. No matter what’s getting your goat-gears a-grindin’, I can assure you that This is Ivy League will cheer you up, that’s a given. From the introductory cymbal roll of “The Richest Kids” to the fleeting organ vibrato that closes “Don’t Waste Your Love On Me,” the soul of this record is sunny and cheery, like watching a parade go by outside your mid-town hotel room window. But dare you sacrifice your dignity to listen to acoustic pop? Dare you?

We’ll get to that question, but let’s talk about the album first. The band draws from a good number of obvious influences (Belle and Sebastian, Peter Bjorn & John, even Simon & Garfunkle), but still manages to set themselves apart with elegant and tasteful deviations of their own. But Instead of lacing the record with extravagance hoping to find at least one killer synth-line to call “their sound,” This is Ivy League start with acoustic-based pop numbers in their purest form and carefully and effectively add a conservative synthesizer part, a doubled-up guitar solo or a trumpet section. Even when the band break out the guitar hooks, organs and time changes for “Celebration,” nothing stands in the way of the song’s lyrical core – the song ends with a soft acoustic guitar and a line that almost sums up the entire album: “Let’s have a celebration in the middle of the week / if these four walls could speak they’d tell us never to go.”

The album sags some in the back half, especially when the band resort almost entirely to the traditional acoustic pop formula on songs like “Til The Day” and “Modern World.” Sure, both songs have lyrics that can hold up to the rest of the album, but they’re also lacking the charm that makes the other songs so successful. The songs both clearly have their merits, many artists have made careers off singing songs worse than these, but neither are worthy of the same praise for originality as the others.
That being said, the closer saves the entire back half from being a waste of tape. The song, “Don’t Waste Your Love On Me,” hits it off strong with a lead guitar + delay pedal riff and then pushes through to the introductory lyrics: “Please, please, please, don’t waste your love on me.” Romantic? Kitschy? Sentimental? All of the above, but there’s something so nonchalant about the song, and the whole album for that matter, that has me convinced that it’s entirely okay.

All of this brings us back to my original conundrum: do I hide this album under my bed, keep its sunny melodies hidden from my day job as a music snob (”I’m dark and sophisticated! I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids! I eat Mahler symphonies for breakfast! Whole!”)? Largely, the answer is “No.” What have we come to if we can’t appreciate good music in its simplest form? This is Ivy League is an album of well written lyrics incorporated into classic acoustic pop songs interspersed with conservative and well placed bits of originality (you know, synthesizers and things). It’s just that simple. It’s just that good.

P.S. The exception to this entire review is “An Introduction,” which is clip of rain, acoustic guitars, and some Ooh’s and Aah’s. In other words, it’s a little sad and totally awesome.

Tunes:

This Is Ivy League - “The Richest Kids”

This Is Ivy League - “London Bridges”

Info:

“The Richest Kids” was featured in our mp3 blog, The Daily Dic, earlier this week.

This is Ivy League is out now on Twenty Seven Records.

Websites
[myspace]