Anthem In
The Cloudbusting EP
(Quiet Loud)
Electric rock instrumentation. A subtle use of vocal harmony. Mild rhythmic syncopation. Repetitive melodic phrasing. A vocal-centric aesthetic. This is Pandora’s brainy (music-genomic) way of saying “pop rock,” or describing the recent Brooklyn gang Anthem In. The five-piece combo includes one chick, a Wurlitzer, and enough hook attempts to make the Christmas tree look tame. Their self-titled debut in 2008 did well enough to warrant a video for MTV. Twelve months later, they’ve got a five-track EP served up in poppy style.
My problem? I’m not sure I can handle yet another clone of The Fray, recent Matt Nathanson, or Vertical Horizon (anyone remember my early-decade pop-rock darling?).
My initial look for clever twists was sidetracked when I realized Anthem In wasn’t actually making a Wired-mag-like reference to “cloudbursting” -- a new nerd-slang term coined by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos to describe something the Internets should do (a.k.a. “scalable hybrid cloud-based infrastructure”). Nope, it’s Cloudbusting, which lands us back in the 1980s when the Internet was still in black and white, and the U.K.’s pop taste included the big-haired, big-voiced Kate Bush. Her previous year’s single “Cloudbusting” is the cover track for Anthem In’s EP, which swaps the melodramatic string bursts and operatic vocals with some nice chunky guitar and four-on-the-floor kick beats.
It’s a solid update. But frankly, Anthem In doesn’t improve an already meandering ballad.
The highlights of the EP clearly come from the other four original tracks, the best of which is “The Boy is On My Side,” a surge of playful guitar riffs and vocal flourish performing for top spot. “Universal” is single claps and mimics the lighter side of Death Cab, while all the tracks seem to rely on obligatory glockenspiel and tambourine.
Don’t get me wrong, Anthem In is a tight, hooky outfit that is as radio-ready as they get. But with repetitive compressed vocals that don’t lend much to the conversation ("baby, you don’t see, you don’t see, yeah baby you don’t see"), Pandora is trying to tell you that this is exactly what you asked for: its fun, it’s happy, it has “mild rhythmic syncopation.” Similar to the Internet.