Review: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Worst Band Name Ever

Label: self-released

Released: June 2007

They certainly got the title right. Pop culture Nintendo reference aside, the name is just awful. But the music is another story and that's how they get away with it. Building on their layered indie rock past, Up Up Down Down (I'm skipping the rest for the sake of brevity) take significant strides forward with their latest release, Worst Band Name Ever.

Several free internet-only EPs offered up by the band over the last several years are as solid as they are ordinary. There's nothing wrong per se, just nothing that stretches beyond the confines of the genre. That can't be said about Worst Band Name Ever though. The songwriting strives for Death Cab for Cutie and while it fails to reach that level (like everyone else who tries to match Ben Gibbard), it does reach a much higher bar than most of Up Up Down Down's peers. Best of all though, Up Up Down Down is much more than just a poor man's Death Cab. They mix up the rhythms with some odd time signatures and a general sense of being slightly, though certainly not entirely, off-balance. It feels like a lonely music geek in physics class (and understanding it).

Much of the album alternates between soft and loud, but the music is so carefully understated that even the loudest parts seem like a wall of quiet. Up Up Down Down are so laid-back in their craft that the songs are memorable without any distinct hooks. Rather than rely on a simple phrase that sticks, the band weaves a web of layered sound between the soft, sweet and vaguely sad and the nervous, edgy and clearly unsettled.

There is no question whose records have spent a lot of time on Up Up Down Down's turntable, but unlike so many others, while they wear that influence on their sleeve, they don't just spit the same thing back out. Their road, while parallel to Death Cab's, is still very much their own.

Rating: 7/10