o hello, It's Tilly and the Wall.

MP3: Tilly and the Wall - Pot Kettle Black

MP3: Tilly and the Wall - Jumbler

Next week sees the release of Tilly and the Wall's "o", the 3rd in their catalogue and the closest they've gotten to recapturing the magic from their debut 2004's "Wild Like Children". Along the way, they seemed to lose the promise they were bursting with, delivering a lackluster sophomore album and completely unlistenable 7 inch single in "Beat Control", so there were little expectations in "o", which happens to work in their favour. Forging through the shit storm, the band deliver a strong, mature sounding effort that almost gets it, with only a few predictable bumps along the way.

Things don't fully kick up until the second song and the album's stand out, "Pot Kettle Black", an example of the right direction for the band to go in. It keeps their tapping and infectious vocals on top of hard hitting drums and a loud, fucking bad ass guitar line. From there, we never reach that high point again, but luckily it fluctuates very little. "Jumbler" and "Dust Me Off" keep things going, and every now and then it trips up, with messes like "Falling Without Knowing", which attempts to dream and float, but ends up floating out of interest, and the absolute rubbish-fest of "Too Excited", a mess of studio dicking around that someone made the mistake of translating into a song.

Of course, that's just looking at the music. Lyrically, this turns into a whole different review. "o"'s nostalgia trip of lost tall grass, high school cattiness and ice cream is a double edged sword: it's enough to rope in listeners with it's charm, but not enough to keep them. As you get through each song, you look for some maturity in the lyrics but it's just not there, which doesn't seem right for a band well into their 3rd album. Musically, they've finally found their sound, mashed between the classic tap dancing and bass and drums rock. Lyrically, we're all still waiting for them to grow up.

"o" is released June 17th from Team Love.

{purchase tilly and the wall recordings from saddle creek}

Tilly and the Wall's newest trainwreck: not just audible bile anymore!

In an effort to stay current, I've decided to delay my planned mp3 post to focus on a video that came to my attention via the always wonderful Stereogum.

Today, they premiered a video for the new single "Beat Control" by Omaha's Tilly and the Wall. Now I must say, this is a real backwards leap in pop music, with rhymes written like they taken from a high school girl's diary who just discovered 80's night at her local teen center. I will shamefully admit that at one time I enjoyed the group's first record, but I mean seriously at this point, it's time to come clean: all of this cutesy rubbish is a gimmick right?

Take the video itself: their smiles look painted on, goofy for the sake of a teenage fanbase, dressed like complete retards peddling recycled keyboard drum beats and a lazy organ line. They even resort to pounding "the beat" into our heads forcefully instead of taking the time to actually write a respectable hook.

For what looks like 2 records now, the band took what people liked about them and saturated it into an unrecognizable mess, accepting the fact that they will never write anything timeless or worthwhile in their recording careers. I mean honestly guys, your fans are going to grow up and leave you for better records... are you prepared for the future? Judging from "Beat Control", I think it's safe to say not even in the slightest.

However, there is a small beam of hope: this is only a 7 inch single track, with no plans to put it on the band's upcoming full length, though something tells me that it will still be more of the same throw up they've been calling songs all this time. Pick this up? Fuck no.

Judge for yourself: @ sterogum