It's Time! - Singles & EP's, 2005-08

Album Review

All the songs Brooklyn's Cause Co-Motion! have released since their formation in 2005 are complied on the group's first CD for Slumberland Records as It's Time! Singles & EPs 2005-2008. Slumberland is a perfect home for Cause Co-Motion! The tinny, live-wire sound the quartet sends shooting through the wires is reminiscent of the clatter and hiss of Henry's Dress, the strutting songcraft calls to mind Jane Pow, and the reverb-soaked recording style is a hallmark of the label's approach from Black Tambourine to Aislers Set to now. Like many Slumberland artists of the past, the group is influenced by the C86-era bands that liked to add some punk energy to their catchy melodies. We're talking the Pastels, Television Personalities, and the Wedding Present and, going a little farther back, the Undertones and Orange Juice. Cause Co-Motion! aren't simple nostalgia merchants, though, and you can spot any obvious cops from song to song — they provide enough careening energy and to knock any charges of copycat-ism sideways. The record rockets from song to song like an over-amplified hurricane, never pausing for contemplation or tender emotions. Perhaps on their first full-length album there will be some time for balladry; the singles are made for rocked-out, poppy-as-can-be noise. Even the songs from 2008, recorded after Cause Co-Motion! had three years to mature, sound as raw and jumpy as their first singles. Only "Cry for Attention" slows the tempo at all and the spiky, almost atonal guitars make up for the lack of speed. With the singles collected here, Cause Co-Motion! make a strong case for being included on the same level as their influences. They may fall just short, but it's not for lack of effort — it's more a matter of how great their influences are.