Pants Yell!
Received Pronunciation - SLUMBERLAND
FILTER Grade: 80%

Pants Yell! often gets lumped into the tween category, which strikes this listener as unfair, and possibly even damaging. Yes, the Boston band can channel the whole lilting, major key thing as well as anyone. But most of the Pants Yell! canon chugs along in a slightly grimier mold—the frayed bridge, the fevered yelp, the chord progression that descends into fuzz. On Received Pronunciation, the first Pants disc for indie pop stable Slumberland, lead singer Andrew Churchman lets his voice wander over nine tales of urban ennui, each more sonically distressed than the last. “Couldn’t find the restaurant/couldn’t tie my tie/couldn’t get arrested, even if I tried,” Churchman complains on “Not Wrong.” Meanwhile, the song comes happily apart at the seams, stray notes spilling under the chorus. The best of this bunch is “Cold Hands,” a rumpled lover’s lament that offers a warm, understated solo like gray clouds giving way to the sun.