That Handsome Devil: That Handsome Devil

That Handsome Devil
That Handsome Devil
Stardust Records
2006-07-25

That Handsome Devil should not be construed as some sort of tribute to the Smiths. This That Handsome Devil is a jazzy, spacey kind of specimen that plods along with some crazy but great arrangement behind it. It sounds like it was spliced together, but finds its horn-tinged groove early on during “Standing Room in Heaven”, which resembles Dr. John to a certain extent. Meanwhile, lead singer Godforbid saunters through the odd “Yada Yada”, which resembles waiting on the line for some agent, sales representative, or some other yahoo who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. But things are ratcheted up quickly during a punk-ish chorus. That Handsome Devil is very musically diverse, with “Sleep It Off” having all the traits of a song off the Shaft soundtrack. Then the band gets you to relax and chill during the Gnarls Barkley-like “Elephant Bones”. The real nugget here is “Dating Tips”, which has a Beatles bounce to it and an idiotic quality a la Digital Underground. The artful short album concludes with a groovy dance ditty called “James Dean”. It’s bizarre, but in a beautiful way.

RATING 7 / 10