How to Beat the SAT EP
Self-released, 2004
rating: 4/5
reviewer: stevie


Indie pop is surely gaining steam in this post-Postal Service world, where club-dwellers walk up to bands who don't even employ electronics and tell them they sound like the esteemed Gibbard-Tamborello one-off (yes, I once observed this). In recent years, though, many have dismissed indie pop for its alleged uniformity, leaving the small legions of remaining devotees only to hope for the day another Tiger Trap comes to set the music world on its backs, succumbed to the awesome power of sun-drenched fields of daisies and polka dots. As ever, then, tweesters are thankful for the arrival of bands like the Metric Mile, who prove those fields of daisies can look different in everyone's mind.

On their first EP, How to Beat the SAT, they surely have a handle on their twee foundations, but the Brooklyn duo uses those extra nine meters to deconstruct typical pop song structures by putting three or four melodies into songs that would be strong on one alone. Each song is a whole new set of ideas, as sparse electronic beats form the landscape for constantly growing layers of crystalline plucked guitar, keyboard straight from Mega Man II, and soothing synth cascading and lulling as each song builds.

With the pastoral setting in place, The Metric Mile deviate from their sun-obsessed contemporaries, like many of the more notable twee projects always do, with often bittersweet melodies that would better accompany starry nights than road trips to the beach. In that vein, the impressive title track begins with a bittersweet descending melody with interwoven bursts of atmospherics, building dynamically to the overwroughtly nostalgic, and musically climactic, chorus. Heartbreaking in delivery as well as prose (think Lois), the lines of the chorus come to the front of the mix only at the top of each melodic line: "Last night the world looked far too big to fall asleep/ Saturday you're learning how to beat the SAT." The lyrics basically follow that suit, remaining simultaneously nostalgic and nerdy, with constant metaphor subjectifying topics ranging from late-night car rides to chess.

The EP as a whole does suffer because each new song is a new set of ideas with virtually no transition from one track to another. This leaves a bit to be desired, but it also provides that consumer-friendly anxiety prior to a full-length. With breezy nights just around the bend, this EP -- free for download at their Web site -- is a good introduction to a band with a promising future, full of misshapen daisies.

1. Classic Chess Problems
2. How to Beat the SAT
3. 84 Brightness
4. Amateurs
5. Isn't Almost So Much Better?