The Daily Spin, February 4
AJJ | People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023. It’s another Favorite Friday!
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World (2007)
Artist: AJJ
Link:
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As a folk punk record, AJJ’s 25-minute jaunt People Who Can Eat People is cornerstone material in many ways - solid instrumentation, varied enough and with the right sort of pacing to get your toe tapping. With vocals reminiscent of The Mountain Goats less a little edge and music that echoes Neutral Milk Hotel, it’s something that in theory, should work pretty well - but I don’t think it does.
Instrumentation is only one half of an album (most of the time), while the other half - if not more - lies in the lyrics. For albums like this, especially in the vein of punk-like records, I think it’s a heavier weight, and it’s where the album is at its weakest, particularly at the back half. The lyrics feel played out and tired, obvious and crude without much reason, to the point where the last few tracks feel like a slog to get through.Â
There’s something to be said for consistency, but there is also something to be said for knowing when to shake things up, and it just doesn’t really feel like AJJ ever realized what that point was for this record. Being edgy can hit in small doses, but the album being 25 minutes doesn’t make it a small dose when the entire record runs foul of this vein of lyricism.Â
Rating: 4.4/10
Best Tracks: Rejoice
Worst Tracks: People II: The Reckoning; Bad Bad Things, Personal Space Invader