Search - Huffamoose :: I Wanna Be Your Pants

By the end of the '90s, the term "alternative rock" had been so abused, misused, and misapplied that its original meaning was twisted beyond recognition. Despite those semantic challenges (and having nearly called it quits after being unceremoniously dumped in a major-label purge cycle after releasing their prophetically titled previous album We've Been Had Again), Philadelphia's Huffamoose proudly shoulders its own distinctive vision into the 21st century on their third album. As any number of alt-rock pretenders have shown, it's no easy feat to be lyrically clever but not precious, musically off-center without being grating; the band makes it across that artistic tightwire with hardly a wobble here. Singer Craig Elkins (the more prolific of the band's two mainstays) draws on both the mundane and mendacious, coloring his spare, quirky takes on life with a novelist's eye for the odd, telling detail. And guitarist Kevin Hanson--his weary romanticism no less cynical, if seemingly just a bit more melancholy--complements Elkins perfectly by turning a title song fraught with novelty expectations into a tender, gently goofy ode to devotion and friendship. This is an intelligent, gently intoxicating album that reveals new details on every listen. --Jerry McCulley