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We Used to Vacation (4:14)
Hang Me Up to Dry (3:38)
Tell Me in the Morning (3:36)
Hair Down (3:40)
Passing the Hat (3:25)
Saint John (3:26)
Robbers (3:31)
Hospital Beds (4:46)
Pregnant (3:58)
Red Wine, Success! (2:37)
God, Make Up Your Mind (4:59)
Rubidoux (11:02) (contains hidden track)

If I had heard more about this band before I decided to check them out, I probably wouldn’t have checked them out at all… Christian indie? God knows what happens when they try to make Christian rock, and I’m pretty sure even He was not amused. But wait! Cold War Kids aren’t a Christian band, they all just happen to be Christian, and all of their songs just happen to have religious references! ah, I see!

However, we’ll talk about that religion thing later… It isn’t important if the album is good (unless you’re writing for Plugged-In online). The thing is, the music is pretty hit or miss. Nathan Willett can definitely sing well, but his whiney voice really gets annoying after awhile. Perhaps he should have stayed in choir, where they need him. Songs sound incredibly similar. Until I listened the album to exhaustion, I could hardly tell the difference between some of the songs. They are also utterly forgettable. according to iTunes, I listened to “Robbers” 7 times, yet it only sounds vaguely familiar to me. The music is bluesy, yet kind of dull. “Hair Down” starts out like it could be an interesting song, with a single guitar whining together with the singer’s voice and slowly blending together with a tambourine, yet once the song really gets started, I grow excited for it to end. “God, Make Up Your Mind” can’t make up its mind as to whether or not it wants to be a good song or not; it starts out painfully slow and irritating, yet speeds up and turns chaotic and kind of heavy. Other songs clearly understand the fact that they are awful: “Pregnant” might be as painful as a pregnancy, but I’ll never know (thankfully). at one point, I think I liked some of the songs, but when I first started listening to the album and now, I kind of hate them. Wasting so much time listening to them makes me kind of have to write this review, because that time could be much better spent!

However, there a few sinners among the dull saints. Ok, that was a perverse and dumb metaphor that no one will get. Let’s try this: there are a few diamonds among the rocks. Well, that is cliché, but you get what I’m saying. “Hang Me Out to Dry”, the song which drew me to this album, is easily the best song on the album, and the more I listen to it, the better it gets! The guitar riff throughout the entire song is just killer, and this is one of the rare moments the dude’s voice works. “Hospital Beds” is also another of my favorites. The piano throughout the song is just… delicious. Well, as delicious as a musical instrument can get. Like “Hang Me Up to Dry”, it is one of the only songs where everything just works. “We Used to Vacation”, “Tell Me In the Morning”, “Saint John”, and “Rubidoux” are all also solid songs. Just not solid enough for me to elaborate on or to make up for how unimpressive the other songs are.

Lyrically, Cold War Kids failed to amuse me. Sure, their songs aren’t praising God and such, but the Christian influence is evident once you take the time to look for it. The religious background is blatant in songs like “Passing the Hat” and “God, Make Up Your Mind”, but in other songs it is more subtle and indirect. In “Hair Down” a woman is described as “laughing like a choir girl,” but really, I didn’t know they laughed. Christian morality is enforced by songs from the perspective of them dirty sinners in “We Used to Vacation” and “Passing the Hat.” Really, all this religion wouldn’t bother me, if the lyrics were good, or maybe had some variety, but all of them seem as if direct stories told by different personas… None of which are very good. In fact, it seems the vaguer the lyrics, the better the songs: “Hang Me Up to Dry” and “Hospital Beds” are easily the least elaborate songs lyrically, with catchy repetitive lines like “hang me out to dry” and “put out the fire on us.”

I’m probably never going to listen to this album again in its entirety, but I really like the songs that I like. Cold War Kids are pretty original and I like them, but they’re far from my favorite band. If you like what you hear, I dare you to venture into the album, but half of the album is mediocre and the other half isn’t that amazing. Hm... I'm debating between a 3 and a 3.5. I'll be nice today. 3.5/5