Be Your Own Pet : "Get Awkward" Review

One of 2008's Best Albums

Be Your Own Pet's second full length album "Get Awkward" is one of the best records that will be released in 2008. Though it is currently only May of 2008 and the album was actually released in March, this proclamation is not being made hastily. What makes "Get Awkward" so great is the fact that once one listens to the entire record all the way through once, it will repeatedly be listen to that way for many years to come. In that respect, it is somewhat reminiscent of Yeah,Yeah, Yeahs 2003 masterpiece "Fever To Tell". Unlike others who have reviewed "Get Awkward", this writer will not lazily resort the comparisons between Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs lead vocalist Karen O. and Be Your Own Pets leading lady Jemina Pearl. While they are both front and center in bands that are otherwise all made up of males, their styles of singing and song writing are very unique for different reason. Let's just end it at that.

"Get Awkward" is full of songs have the ability to be thoughtful, fun, or both at the same time. One such track that gives listeners both is "Bummer Time", which is simply a song about what a drag it is when something (like a TV show) that meant so much at one time in our lives no longer holds that same meaning. "Bummer Time" includes this incredibly relevant and insightful lyric: "Everyone talks about it like they were there, All this nostalgia yet nobody cares." One only has to think of all of those I Love the 80's, 90's, etc shows that run on VH1 or watch the History Channel to realize that we as society are so overly nostalgic and glorifying of the not so distant past that we tend to view it in a way that we are not qualified to really judge it in because we've lived it. However, at the same time one can tell that Be Your Own Pet had a great time recording "Bummer Time" which makes it fun for the listener.