The Downtown Fiction, "Let's Be Animals"

Truth:

Virginia band, The Downtown Fiction, is now streaming their new album, “Let’s Be Animals.” The album is expected to be released April 26, 2011.

Sarah:

“Let’s Be Animals” is a 10-track album from The Downtown Fiction. It features the first single, “Thanks For Nothing,” which received rave reviews from fans. The album is a much more mature sound from the band, whose previous album, “The Double EP,” was released in December of 2010. The album opens with “Thanks For Nothing,” then goes into “Freak,” a self-deprecating single focused on every outsider’s  inability to mesh well with others. It’s a theme song for all loners, featuring lyrics like:

Trapped in a box
Feeling so small
Can’t feel a thing
Can’t feel at all
People they sat
Laughing at me
Point at my face
Call me a freak

The lyrics to “Freak” ring true to all the unique people misunderstood by mainstream society. Lyrically, I find this to be the best and most meaningful song on the album. That said, I freaking love it (bad pun; sorry). It even has an unofficial music video with clips of an old-school black-and-white movie.
Watch:

Next up is “Stoned.” It’s almost like all the other songs comparing love to drugs (see Ke$ha’s “Your Love is My Drug,” Justin Timberlake’s “LoveStoned,” and Leighton Meester’s “Your Love’s A Drug). The main difference is that it actually sounds under the influence. I don’t mean that it sounds stupid or that they wrote it while using some street pharmaceuticals; I mean that it goes deeper than the typical “I feel so high with you” kind of stuff (though it is mentioned in the bridge). Instead, he practically screeches “I feel stoned” then goes into details of how demented you feel when you meet someone you love:

Telephone booth in a living room
Better hurry up cuz I’m coming soon
Oh-oh-oh It’s just me and you
Come on, come on, come on.

Made no sense, but when you’re in love, does anything? After “Stoned, is a remastered mix of “I Just Wanna Run,” their first single that shot them to popularity. Then there is “She Knows.” (read original review: http://wp.me/p1gMIJ-8N) The sixth track is the title track, “Let’s Be Animals,” a song that is introduced with random animal songs, then goes into Leahy giving a convincing argument about becoming animals

Take off our clothes
run through the streets
scream at the moon
scruff up our feet
Won’t hear a word
Cuz they’d probably say we’re terrible
Let’s be animals…

The seventh track is the infectious “Wake Up,” an alternative-style cheery song.  “Wake Up” leads into “Alibi,” which is probably about what you expected (“Give me your reasons why/you got no alibi). It’ s a high-energy song that breaks down into an homage to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” (minus the crazed “AY AY AY between). Appropriately, next is “Tell Me a Lie.” “Tell Me a Lie” is the song that every person in a relationship has contributed to. Leahy begs:

Could you tell me a lie, lie
Cuz I don’t wanna hear those words tonight, tonight
Cuz I can’t take the truth
Baby, give it try
I’ve seen a thousand times
I know those lips can lie
Could you tell me a lie
Cuz I can’t take the truth…

It’s heartbreaking, but true.
The album ends with a wonderful surprise. Actually, it does. The last song is “A Wonderful Surprise.” It shows the soft side of The Downtown Fiction that was seen in the first EP and album. It’s a U2-esque (“Beautiful Day”) song featuring choral beauty and sugary-cute lyrics

So if you really have to go
There’s just one thing that you should know
That when you look into my eyes
You are a wonderful surprise

Overall, the album is an improvement that I did not see coming. It’s got singles that should be played on the radio (“Let’s Be Animals,” “Stoned,” “Thanks For Nothing”) and songs that will hold old and new fans over until the next album.
Catch the boys on tour!
Buy the album!
Stream the whole album!
Follow them on Twitter!