Mates of State Team Boo Polyvinyl Records 2003

Mates of State Team Boo Polyvinyl Records 2003 CAT #PRC-065

Of the early Mates of State releases, this sits right below Bring It Back in terms of release year and quality. Mates of State's unabashedly cute brand of indie-pop was just about perfect at this point. The chaotic back and forth husband and wife vocals are thrown at you from all directions. Sung with a naivete that would rival Jonathan Richman the two go back and forth in their song-speak. The sounds blast out of the speaker, the organ riffs, keyboard lines, and steady drums are exciting on the uptempo songs. The only reason it falls short of Bring it Back is the duo had yet to perfect their slow jams on Team Boo. The love jams aren't bad, they're just not perfected like they were on the proceeding LP.

The album also features some names that made Mates of State's sound bigger. They brought along Jim Croslin of the often forgotten indie-pop great, Beulah, along with Jim Eno of Spoon (who Croslin also played with) to produce the album. The two get a big sound out while still not employing guitars. They effectively highlighted the chaotic pop and made more sense of everything. As a whole, Team Boo is a little more accessible to mainstream pop fan than the prior albums. Still, a Jennifer Lopez or Christina Aguilera fan wasn't about to touch this, but a Avril Lavigne fan, maybe.

Gotta Get a Problem