Matt & Kim: New Glow
2.8/10
I'm going to keep this one short and not so sweet: this group needs to move on. Matt & Kim have been making the same happy, uptempo pop song for the last 6 years now. Barely anything has changed in their formula, and this is so disheartening to see. This group had a lot of unique characteristics when they made their come up in the late 2000s, but at this point they have worn them so thin that it's honestly just ridiculous. On top of the overuse of these happy traits, the group has become lazier with time. They've never been expert composers or anything, that's for sure, but the hooks are not as flashy anymore, and the lyrics at points are just childish and dumb. This bands first two records Matt & Kim and Grand displayed so much more playfulness and effort than their later outputs. Songs like Daylight, Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare, and Yeah Yeah all are very creative and knacky pop tunes that will stick to your brain like gorilla glue. In relation, some of the songs on here lack any quirks. Get it and Hoodie On just conform to regular pop/electronic standards and lack any character. Also, these songs sound like they were written in 10 minutes. I seriously could predict just about every line in Hoodie On before it was said, it was kind of soul crushing. I could do the same thing with hits such as Lets Go, but those songs at least had some energy on them. If Lightning was a band with a little bit left, barely hanging on, then New Glow is that same band fully losing it. Ironically, there is really nothing new about this record at all. Sure, the style is a little more electronic, but listening to this thing got old really quick. I felt like I had heard all of these songs before, and I found myself disinterested a mere 5 songs in. To put that in perspective, that's about 15 minutes into a 28 minute album. This thing is short, but it does not feel that way. It is so devoid of any good content that I do not think I'll be able to listen to it ever again.
Overall, this album is full of forgettable tracks, but if you love Matt & Kim then I can't discourage you from buying this thing. It's catchy, but compared to their earlier efforts, which by the way I love, it holds no candle. New Glow was not an experiment, it really wasn't even New for me, it kind of just felt like a lazy rehash of their old material. This is the kind of album that would kill most group's careers, but if Matt & Kim have taught us anything it's that being optimistic is always okay.
Sorry I didn't talk about individual tracks much, but I really don't like almost anything here.
Best Songs: Hey Now, World Is Ending
Worst Songs: Stirred Up, Can You Blame Me, Hoodie On, Not Alone, I See Ya, Killin' Me
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