Ear Pwr – Super Animal Brothers III

Ear Pwr, a duo from Baltimore, are one of the latest in a line of bands who sound a bit like Dan Deacon and Animal Collective. They're supposed to be endearingly wacky, cute, a little bit twee and altogether out of this world. They lay out their colours instantly by giving themselves a nonsensical name, calling their album Super Animal Brothers III, giving it a colourful cover featuring two grown men playing with Lego, and writing songs such as 'Sparkley Sweater'. It's perhaps very easy for many to find Ear Pwr objectionable from the beginning, finding the very idea of them annoying and embarrassing without even having to listen to the music. But the success of a band of its type relies on being able to draw the listener into their wonderful world, through the quality of their music, and lyrics.However, Super Animal Brother III fails to do this. Instead of coming across as lovably weird, the duos attempts to charm the listener seem forced. As if, rather than actually being colourful and wonderful characters, the duo has tried as hard as they can to be alternative, and outlandish. Their songs seem banal and clumsy rather than gloriously childish. They fail to, as Ear Pwr would wish, make the listener revoke to a childlike state of joy, instead causing either bafflement or boredom. There is little in songs such as 'Cats is people, too', 'Epic Suitcase' and title track 'Super Animal Brothers III' that doesn’t sound like a 13 year old trying to be all "random" by blasting out nonsensical phrases. Which is essentially what most Ear Pwr lyrics amount to.This could perhaps be forgiven if their music held much merit, but there is little of high quality to be found here. Songs all follow a similar basic drum beat, with high pitched synth lines over the top. It sounds a bit like Dan Deacon but with all of the interesting music removed. The vocals are effectively tuneless, and many will be put off simply by that, although Sarah Reynolds does sing some relatively catchy tunes, especially on 'Diamonds Liquor Leather'. Ear Pwr aren’t entirely abysmal, and at times do stretch to moderately enjoyable - 'Epic Suitcase', for example, shows a lot of promise. Super Animal Brothers III could be described as fun, and despite all of the above, sometimes it is. For brief glimpses their attempts at surreal imagery and lively music do succeed, but too often Ear Pwr come across as annoying, uninspired and almost cringe-worthy. 49%Ear Pwr on Myspace