Like It or Not - EP

Album Review

"Like It or Not" was one of the lonely highlights on Architecture in Helsinki's disappointing third album, Places Like This, and a new version of the track headlines the band's summer 2008 EP. It's one of the few tracks to successfully meld the band's high-spirited amateur enthusiasm of previous efforts with its newfound desire to force everyone listening to have the absolute best time ever of all time. The song had one Cameron Bird's less mannered and over-the-top vocals, too, and that fact helped it immeasurably. You'll realize how important this little bit of restraint can be when you get to the Max Tundra remix of "Hold Music." Bird performs some wild vocal stunts on this track that not even Tundra's deft and bubbly production can fix. El Guincho's remix of "Like It or Not" fixes the Bird problem by turning his vocal gymnastics into glitchy refrains that give his tropical groove a little kick. The other tracks on the EP, a insistent version of U.K. prog rockers IQ's disco single "Beef in Box" and a glitzy, disco-fied live favorite "One Heavy February 2008," are short on hooks but heavy on energy. There's no sign here of the AIH 24-hour party coming to an end anytime soon, and how you feel about that will make all the difference as you ponder purchasing the record.