Red Int / Red Ink
2008
Partie Traumatic
About This Album
For almost a year before the release of their debut record, Florida's Black Kids were reliable music blog fodder. First, the breathless discovery, then the breathless confirmation at 2007's CMJ Conference and then breathless speculation on what label the band would end up on (Almost Gold/Columbia) and finally, the question of whether or not the record could possibly live up to the breathless expectations. The answer to that question is a little tricky. It'd be tough for any band to fully measure up to some of the claims and praise being thrown the Black Kids way and they don't. Not completely, though they give it their all. What the band has done instead is make a solid, sometimes exciting, always interesting debut album. Nothing too groundbreaking or unique because, like many 2000s kids, Black Kids are '80s kids and just about every sound on Partie Traumatic can be traced back to that era. Reggie Youngblood's vocals usually channel the Cure's Robert Smith, as do a large percentage of the songs; the perky, cheerleader vocals from Dawn Watley and Ali Youngblood sound like an All-American version of the girls in the Human League, Kevin Snow seems particularly fond of the drum patterns from David Bowie's "Modern Love" (for good reason), and the group employs a wide variety of wonderfully cheesy synths.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4 and 5)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

 
report abuse