Can't Wait Another Day

iTunes Review

By all rights, this should be a transitional album for the Ladybug Transistor. With the departure of central member Sasha Bell and the tragic death of drummer San Fadyl, no one would blame the Brooklyn outfit for laying low. The good news for fans of the band’s lush chamber-pop aesthetic is that Can’t Wait Another Day offers more of the same, with the emphasis on more: more strings, more horns, more clever, densely packed arrangements, more of Gary Olson’s mellifluous baritone. Also more pop-geek musical touchpoints: Burt Bacharach, Beach Boys, Zombies, Left Banke, a touch of Belle and Sebastian, a whiff of Beulah and Lambchop in each of those bands’ warmer, more AM-radio moments. The songs are never less than beautifully crafted, but the album’s greatest pleasures come from its quirky instrumentation, the unexpected delight of stumbling on that angular sax solo on “Always on the Telephone” or the snazzy mariachi horns on “Broken Links.” In general, the uptempo numbers work better than the ballads, and taken as a whole, the album suffers from a certain melodic sameness — the result of Bell’s absence, maybe, or just the omnipresence of Olson’s distinctive but somewhat undemonstrative vocals. But listened to one at a time, the songs unfold themselves more with each listen. The taut, hook-packed opener “Always on the Telephone” ranks with the very best of the band’s work, and the new-wavey surf-country vibe on “This Old Chase” transcends pastiche to become something weirdly and wonderfully new.