’self-titled LP’ reviews

by marc hogan, pitchfork
A decade has passed since Belle & Sebastian released their first two albums. More than enough time, anyway, for awkward American youths who came of age to If You’re Feeling Sinister to put their own stamp on the bedsit melancholy of Stuart Murdoch and fey precursors like the Housemartins and the Smiths. Austin indie-poppers Voxtrot have been widely praised for doing just that, but professional droolerati have paid markedly less attention to talented young library-mopers from outside the convenient South by Southwest ZIP code. Math and Physics Club, for example.
The Seattle quintet’s self-titled album should get some warm looks from a new generation of tender-hearted, bookish music listeners. Following a pair of solid (if by-the-book) 2005 EPs, Weekends Away and Movie Ending Romance, MAPC’s full-length debut dusts off another 10 brazenly sweet songs of quiet heartbreak, late-summer acoustic guitar, reverb-laden Rickenbacker, tambourine, and occasional violin. “We’ve been down this road before,” bespectacled singer/guitarist Charles Bert croons softly on “You’ll Miss Me”, and it won’t take twee kids long to play spot-the-influences. But, in the words of distinguished Australian forebears (and labelmates) the Lucksmiths: “Once more won’t hurt/ So let’s do it once more.”
Indeed, like that underrated band Down Under, MAPC tend to obsess about the weather– and not just in their breezy melodies. The ba-ba-ba chorus of “April Showers” is a fine excuse for staying indoors, while “Cold as Minnesota” confronts a selfish lover with a bitter frost beneath deceptively cheery handclaps: “Stop wearing all my clothes and watching television/ I used to be your favorite show.” The happier times and languid strums of “Holidays and Saturdays” call for swimming pools, croquet, and all-night conversations, perhaps between Field Mice listening sessions. Bittersweet opener “Darling, Please Come Home” conjures sunsets and fireflies to save a troubled relationship: “You said I seem like a stranger/ Well, I guess that makes two.”
At times, the songs come tantalizingly close to discovering themselves, though no one will mistake MAPC for Tullycraft anytime soon. “La La La Lisa”, with requisite la-la-las, reminisces about a nervous punk-rock crush– how “there’s just something about a girl with a bass guitar.” Meanwhile, the lonely protagonist of “Such a Simple Plan” wishes for a love instruction manual while “typing away to another sad romantic on the internet.” Finale “The Last Chance” offers love one more chance to conquer all, or at least another human being (oh lawd, just one). It’s this unfettered sentimentality that should set MAPC apart as big-tent indie races to crown the next Dishwalla. Drummer Kevin Emerson may have a surprising funk pedigree, but this is music to hold hands to.

by david greenwald, coke machine glow
You can take the pop out of the sun, but untangling sunshine from pop music is another matter altogether. Especially in California, where “pop” really means “Beach Boys” and “Another Sunny Day” is both a Belle & Sebastian song and an uninterrupted way of life. Yet in a place where summers are endless and nights last until hung-over afternoons, autumn is perhaps the year’s one turning point. Winters are meaningless in a state where it never snows, but ah, the fall: trees turning to red and gold, the impatient wind, the autumnal chill. It’s the closest thing there is to a season here, but it takes an introspective sort to appreciate it. It’s fitting, then, that the Seattle, WA-based Math and Physics Club record for Santa Barbara’s Matinée Recordings. Santa Barbara is a coastal, collegiate Shangri-la where the wealthy sun themselves and the young and beautiful live out their hedonistic fantasies along the beach. Where better to know the slings and arrows of the summertime, who better to answer May flowers with October chill? The band’s brand of indie-pop is hardly cold or abrasive; it’s just that its warmth is that of apple cider and knit sweaters rather than the unflinching sun. That’s not to imply that Math and Physic Club is without reference points. The album’s production, far from the genre’s typical lo-fi, has a clean, austere quality to it that distinguishes it (at least slightly) from the scuffling scratch of early Belle and Sebastian, to whom the band is often compared. The group’s debut full-length will likely evoke more comparisons to the Club’s twee forebears, though the similarities rest largely in singer Charles Bert’s fey faux-accent. Still, the band has perhaps a closer resemblance to the Clientele or the Softies, at least in its use of the electric lead guitar as an omnipresent melodic voice. Like the Clientele, the Club recognizes the emotive weight of a liberal use of delay pedal, letting notes linger on like tearful summer lovers not quite ready to move on with their lives. If you haven’t figured it out already, these are songs for romantics. If you’re too cynical to hold hands or appreciate girls who play bass guitars (”La La La Lisa”), this is probably not the record (much less genre) for you. James Werle’s playing embodies this perfectly, with the band borrowing the Softies’ lead guitar-friendly framework. There are flourishes, though, and while the record is driven by the basic interplay between acoustic rhythm, electric lead and tight bass and drums, there are tasteful appearances by piano, strings and horns. There are the strings that weep quietly over the build-up to the chorus of “Look At Us Now,” the coy xylophone notes that help “Darling, Please Come Home” take a brief, evocative detour from jangling, and the horn playing that brings such major key joy to “La La La Lisa.” — among the album’s many great moments. And make no mistake, these are great moments, as well-crafted and accomplished as the genre is perhaps capable of. In a year rife with notable retro-referencing indie-pop releases, from the Pipettes to Camera Obscura, the Club seems to exist in a timeless void; this is a record that would’ve fit in well ten years ago and will likely sound as smooth and sweet a decade hence. To that end, the lyrics tread well-charted waters — the abstract, bittersweet complexities of unrequited love and relationships on the rocks. But Bert approaches his themes with charm and poetic sensibilities, rational one minute (”Now I’m back here at your door / We can end this pointless war”), hopelessly romantic the next in “I Know What I Want” and a crush-laden kid in “La La La Lisa.” The optimistic closer “Last Dance” is as satisfying a narrative finish as the album could want: “Why does it have to be sad / Now darling, don’t be mad / Let’s put the past behind and hit the floor before the last dance.” The ten tracks of Math and Physics Club are as snug as your favorite track jacket. It’s brief, the songs unbarring their hearts and melodies and moving on, like a red-gold rush of leaves blowing down the sidewalk. But then, autumn is always over too quickly. Math and Physics Club sing songs about girls you can’t forget and play music for seasons you already know all too well; there are plenty of pop albums offering sunshine, but this one will warm your heart.

by rawkblog
The Seattle-based pop group Math and Physics Club may have only released two EPs so far in their career, but already they sound determined to write and record songs that people will remember, songs that listeners will hold dear to their hearts. And while it’s always best to err on the side of caution when praising a group that’s only just begun, judging by their first two releases they seem well on their way. Their latest 4-song EP, Movie Ending Romance, may be even better than their first (Weekends Away, released earlier this year), though it’s hard to tell because they’re both so strong. Where Weekends Away for me occasionally recalled MAPC’s fellow Matinee musicians the Lucksmiths, in the literate, sensitive approach to catchy pop songs, Movie Ending Romance is more openly evocative of the Smiths, perhaps only because of lead singer Charles’ singing style here. Influences don’t matter, I know, I know, but at the same time it is important to mark the fact that while Math and Physics Club’s songs occasionally indebted to a whole host of intelligent, open-hearted, and classic pop groups of the past, they also strongly hold their own next to the songs they recall. In other words, the feeling that Math and Physics Club is aiming to write classic pop singles may be merely because these songs are so damn good that throwing the word classic around doesn’t seem disingenuous. The three original songs here - the title track, “White and Grey”, and “Graduation Day” - represent the art of songwriting at its best. And then the EP closes with an absolutely dynamite cover of the Beach Boys’ “You’re So Good to Me”, which has its own unique energy, and an intriguing sound that answers the never-before-asked musical question, “what would have happened if the Smiths and the Beach Boys had formed a supergroup?”

by Knut, eardrums
Sometimes there are these bands that you keep your eyes and ears on for months and months, - you just love their sound and you can’t wait for their album to be released. This is how I (and probably lots of other music fans out there) have felt for the Seattle-band Math and Physics club. They have released a couple of fantastic EPs, “Weekends Away” and “Movie Ending Romance” (both from 2005), and their debut album has been highly anticipated. When I opened my mailbox and found Math and Physics club’s self-titled album, I got really excited. Then, a few seconds later, I started to fear that my expectations were too high, - that the chance of being disappointed were huge. So, - I calmed down, - made myself some coffee, pressed play and sat down in my best chair. My fear of disappointment disappeared during the first track, “Darling, Please Come Home”. What an opener! Pure pop from start to finish, - melodic, warm and with those sweet, jangly guitars that I love so much. Math and Physics Club is not the band that does their best to scare you away with noisy guitars and screaming vocals. This is just clean and charming pop with a focus on “the good melody”. The next track is even better, “I Know What I Want”, which has become one of my favorites on the album. And so it goes from track to track, - high quality all the way. “April Showers” (track 3) is also a favorite with its amazing chorus and bouncy beats. On “Holidays and Saturdays”, they show a calmer side, with acoustic guitars, violins and glockenspiel. The fifth song, “La la la Lisa”, is a charmingly nostalgic lovesong to Lisa, - with a theme similar to Art Brut’s “Emily Kane”. The trumpets makes it even more charming… Trumpets should be a standard instrument in rock bands! I could go on telling you about all the songs on this album, because in one way or the other, they are all my favorites. Math and Physics club: Thank you!

by Erik Gonzalez, Three Imaginary Girls
Emotions are a funny thing. You hear a lot about them when you’re out and about, and they seem to have a lot of sway in daily life. However, some emotions are just underappreciated. I suppose “appreciation” is an emotion in itself (or is it a state of being?), but the point is, certain emotions deserve a little more respect.

Case in point: let’s have three cheers for melancholy! (Hip hip… *sigh*). The definition of “melancholy” is, “thoughtful of gentle sadness.” Now, really, what’s wrong with that? I’m 100% behind melancholy! With a little help from Seattle’s
own Math & Physics Club, you will be too, and you won’t mind as you wistfully stare out into the impending rain and grey of a Pacific Northwest winter.

Math & Physics Club is the debut self-titled album from these Belle & Sebastian descendents that strive towards gentle melodies, softly caressing guitars, and vocals delivered with such a quiet effectiveness that Stuart Murdoch might think about suing over copyright infringement. However, where Belle & Sebastian has gotten itself lost in either being far too hushed for its own good or becoming a full-on 60’s pop band, Math & Physics Club have mastered the ability to fill a room with sound without filling the room with too much sound. A perfect example leads off the album, where Kevin’s gently brushed drums, lilting vocals from Charles, and an organ solo combine into the perfect fall song “Darling, Please Come Home.”

And if you’re in the market for passion, look no further than “I Know What I Want,” where Charles sings “I know what I want/and it’s you.” The sweetness just keeps coming on “April Showers,” which starts right off with “There is no place I’d rather be/than you right next to me/huddled up under my umbrella” (an advantage of Seattle, I’ll give it that). Again, there’s such synergy Math & Physics Club have between the vocals, James’ smoothly plucked guitars that echo into the air, and the playful drums that keep the songs from descending into “sad bastard” territory.

“La La La Lisa” is one of the gems of Math & Physics Club, a tale of crushes and lack of confidence when trying to talk to ladies, with lines like “There’s just something about a girl with a bass guitar.” It’s the perfect indie rock love song — I mean, where else will you find a girl described as having “The prettiest eyes/they were black like her lips”? — but it’s all from afar because Lisa only goes with older kids. The melancholy here is flawless: the joy of that ideal love tempered by the realism of actually, you know, working up the nerve to do anything about it.

“Look at Us Now” starts with Saundrah’s violins, which dance with the guitars in the closest thing to being an outtake from If You’re Feeling Sinister. It has that rare gift that the Smiths had in spades of combining incongruous light and cheery music with really sad lyrics (“We were in love/but look at us now.”) The same can be said for “Cold as Minnesota,” which is a surprisingly bitter song of a break-up, couched in a foot-tapping number that features 60’s beats and catchy basslines that contradict the lyrics.

The album closes on the appropriately titled “Last Dance,” a song that advocates not worrying about the problems in a relationship with the advice “Let’s put the past behind/and let’s hit the floor before the last dance.” The song is the great closer for any album that seems to shout (well, well, not shout as much as quietly suggest) that life is a lot less down than advertised if you have the right attitude.

Math & Physics Club will be a favorite of all the cool kids with its splendid mixing of heart-string-tugging lyrics and soft, gentle music that never gets bogged down in Robert Smith-like gloominess. For all of you already planning your music for the winter, you should make sure to have the Math & Physics Club on the ready to guide you through it. The season might be bleak, but the Math & Physics Club will keep you feeling warm and fuzzy all over.