Black Kids
Partie Traumatic
(Almost Gold/Columbia)
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Black Kids “isn’t quite ready for its close-up,” said Joan Anderman in The Boston Globe. The Florida fivesome became the buzz of the blogosphere last year when it released a free EP called Wizard of Ahhhs. But on the full-length Partie Traumatic, Black Kids doesn’t live up to the hype. While perky and “willfully polished,” its debut makes the group sound like just another young band “enchanted with other people’s music.” Only on a few tracks does the group forge an original sound: The single “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You,” for instance, mixes vocals worthy of the Cure’s Robert Smith with “pep-squad cheers, squiggly synths, and lo-fi guitars.” But that’s the very same song that originally turned people onto the band’s EP, said Jon Swaine in the London Daily Telegraph. In fact, all four of the EP’s songs appear on Partie Traumatic and, disappointingly, “nothing else matches them.” On “Love Me Already,” you can almost hear the “fizz of the next big thing” turning flat. Black Kids often is guilty of merely recycling pop of the past, said Alexis Petridis in the London Guardian. But the group has an “ear for a tight, catchy pop song” and call-and-response choruses. With luck, Black Kids will put it all together on another album soon.
