Sony
2004
Forget What You Know
About This Album
Midtown has jettisoned its last stores of punk-pop silly string for Forget What You Know, its ambitious major-label debut, coming up with a leaner, more moody sound. Working with producer Butch Walker (Marvelous 3), the foursome finds new life in the shadows of punk revivalism and vague modern rock cynicism, forgoing sugar-high hooks in favor of less direct yet still succinct songcraft. Jeez, Gabriel Saporta's husky croon even sounds like Jakob Dylan sometimes. That doesn't mean Forget What You Know is aiming for adult alternative. No, it dwells in wiry guitars, weary singing, purposeful instrumental shifts, and routs of textured aggression. It's the sound of wanting very badly to grow up. "Is It Me? Is It True?" begins with a ping-ponging verse, but soon shifts into toy piano breaks and feel-good lyrics like "Sex is old/Old and boring." The album's morose interludes -- "Armageddon," "God Is Dead" -- are also telling, as they reflect directly off the cloud of gloomy cynicism hovering over Midtown. (That the proceedings end with nearly ten minutes of the looped phrases "You've had all the time in the world" and "You don't listen" is equally blatant.
Track List (try tracks 2,3 and 8)

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