Why Don't We Talk About Something Else - EP

Album Review

The five-song EP Why Don't We Talk About Something Else is quintessential Outrageous Cherry, witty and jangly on the outside and bittersweet on the inside. As a taster for their next album Our Love Will Change the World, "Why Don't We Talk About Something Else" itself opts for tight hooks and clever lyrics ("Why don't we talk about something else/Not your shock-treatment childhood or your split personality"), emphasizing the fresh take on pop classicism that's kept the band sounding vital for over a decade. The rest of the EP is also more straightforward than the psych-prog leanings of their recent output. "Eternity Changed Her Mind" is a sweet, Beach Boys-tinged ballad, and "Don't Worry" sets philosophical musing (""Don't worry/The earth is just a particle of dust/Whirling on the cusp/On the emptiness of space") to jaunty, piano-driven pop. Matthew Smith still has one of indie rock's most affable voices, both musically and lyrically; he manages to sound empathetic without being overly sentimental or quirky on songs like this. Two of the EP's strongest tracks use Detroit and the Midwest as inspiration: "My Suspicious Midwest" (rhymed with "second best") is an ambivalent love letter, comparing the area to ruins like Pompeii and Atlantis but also insists "I never left." The atmospheric "Detroit Blackout," meanwhile, is aptly long, dark and gritty, with soupy guitars and organs that evoke the city's garage rock scene without rehashing it. Like a lot of their '60s influences, Outrageous Cherry often makes the most impact in short, concentrated bursts; in a perfect world, the band would release nothing but EPs like this (and they'd get the attention they deserve).