let’s wrestle

The only bad thing about Let’s Wrestle is that they make it impossible to listen to anything else. There’s catchy and then there’s catchy, and somehow these three London boys have invented a whole new CATCHY that scientists worldwide are currently devoting resources to cure. If you think I’m joking you obviously haven’t listened. Yet.

Let’s Wrestle really like minor chords, but they make them triumphant and happy to be sad, a bit like Modest Mouse’s “Trailer Trash” or the Clash’s version of “Police and Thieves.” There should probably be a Sebadoh song in that list, too, because they sound like them as well, nothing at all new here but all of it done better than 99% of the other shameless indie-pop records in existence. Plus, the album’s opening lyric goes: “No matter how many/ Records I buy/ I can’t fill this void.” Do these kids know their target audience or what?

Also wonderful is “Song for Man With Pica Syndrome” — amazingly a confessional biographic tune — and its opening line, “In 1971 I did something I should not have done/ It made my mother and father worry,” the lyrics barked in a bored way, like he’s right back there when he got caught by his folks. It’s a great performance. But even more wonderful is “Insects,” which is about bedbugs which are not wonderful. The song is genuinely touching and emotional despite the fact that the chorus goes “I’m gonna buy a new mattress” with super dramatic oohs in the background. How do they do it?

The only song that’s not so good is “Music Is My Girlfriend,” but that’s because it reminds me of Art Brut. Who I don’t like, but I know others do. So that one might even be a plus for some people! This album has it all!