Search - Format :: Dog Problems

A truly compelling light rock album

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 04/10/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a rare album whose bright, happy-sounding pop tunes completely belies the subject matter of the songs. If you read the lyrics without the music, you'd discover a string of break up songs. If you listen to the music without paying attention to the lyrics, you'd swear that these were the most carefree, happy songs ever written. One of my favorite genres of music is power pop of the Big Star, Sloan, New Pornographers variety. This is pop without the power, but not uncompelling for all that. The Amazon reviewer describes it as power pop, but I can't make any sense of this description. One associates power pop with bands like I just mentioned, that combine pop melodies with power chords. As I said, there has to be some edge of some sort for it to qualify as power pop. The songs are perhaps a little brighter and less edgy than what I am normally attracted to, but if even someone like me, who normally wouldn't be pulled to an album like this, loves it, imagine how much more someone who loves light pop would.



The Format is essentially a two-person band that has added additional personnel to make them viable for live performances. Nonetheless, the songs are still co-written by co-founders Nate Ruess and Sam Means. My impression is that singer Ruess, who is blessed with a soaring and unfettered high tenor that at times recalls Harry Nilsson, is responsible for the lyrics and Means the melodies. On record Means supplies an unreasonable amount of the playing. I have not seen them live so I don't know what instrument (or instruments) he focuses on in concert. If I have a complaint about the band - and really I don't quite - it is that the lyrics sometimes are a bit too cute and the melodies a bit too soft-edged. For instance, in one song Ruess sings, "Tick tock, you're not a clock/You're a time bomb baby." I normally would find that kind of line a bit too clever for comfort, but for some reason I have little trouble accepting it here. Throughout Ruess sings in a wonderfully free, unstrained tenor that rarely relies on falsetto. There are a huge number of rock singers who force themselves to sing in a very high register, but I know of no one who sings this high with so little strain. I love the Shins, but their vocals are clearly sung in a higher register than their voices want, but Ruess sings even higher with markedly more ease.



With a couple of exceptions this is a remarkably strong set of songs. I heard their earlier album INTERVENTIONS AND LULLABIES once or twice, but found too much of it flat and unexciting. The songs on this album are dramatically stronger. I mentioned "Time Bomb," which sounds like a sixties top 40 hit. One of my favorite cuts is "She Doesn't Get It," where the guy is on a timetable because she is "leaving on a Sunday" and which contains some of Ruess's best vocal work. Interestingly, this is one of the rare CDs that seem to get stronger as it goes along. Too many albums cram their best cuts in the first half of the CD. DOG PROBLEMS's best cuts are near the middle, with such cuts as the title track (which really does sound like a Harry Nilsson number) and "Oceans."



I definitely recommend this album but only with a word of caution: this is very light pop. If you only like music with an edge and a beat, this might not be for you. But if something this bright and upbeat excites you, give it a shot."