Built By Animals: Corporate Syndrome
Brooklyn, NY trio, Built By Animals release their debut EP, Corporate Syndrome. In four brief songs, the group attempts to chronicle the persons average life from high school (“Teenage Rampage”), to college (“Return to Power Kingdom”), to a bleak 40-hour a week job (“Spreadsheets”, “Ducks”) all in a neat little indie rock package.
The problem with telling me your album is a concept album is then I try to look for the concept. Looking as hard as I could, I could only really see the “concept” in one song on the album. “Spreadsheets” really sums up the plight of the nine-to-five worker. The track is one of the slower songs on the album and has kind of a Modest Mouse feel to it. The lyrics include morose doses of reality like “eight hours to work/to play/to sleep/get up/no way/it’s not the job you hate/it is yourself”.
The track “Teenage Rampage” is supposed to represent high school. Instead the track is really just a party song that could easily be for high school, college, or adulthood. It is a pretty good song but nothing about it screams formative teenage years to me. However the track’s jangly guitar riff screams Oxford Collapse to me.
Besides the loose concept that is supposed to define the album which I find largely absent, the EP is strong debut. The songs are fun without being goofy (except for a “quack” in “Ducks” which is a little unnecessary). I am really interested in hearing a full length album from these guys.
Rating: 8.4/10
MP3: Built by Animals “Spreadsheets”
Buy: iTunes