Matt & Kim’s new album ‘easily their worst ever’

Do-it-yourself indie-rock duo Matt & Kim’s latest album, “Lightning,” is easily their worst ever. Recorded in their old Grand St. apartment in Brooklyn (after which their second album was named,) the album is even more stripped down than their previous effort. Each song’s lyrics consists mainly of the titles of said tracks, and there is no “Daylight”-esque savior track anywhere to be found. The music is terribly composed, artlessly simple and worst of all, aggravating. In short, the album is abysmal. 

Matt Oriente (vocals and keyboard) and Kim Schifino (drums) have always gone for a youthful approach, but this album is going to have a hard time appealing to anyone but the Pabst Blue Ribbon crowd. While the duo have infused slight hip-hop and punk themes into the 10-track set, it does little to save the album from utter disaster.

“Let Go” is a lackluster single, and although Matt explains that “All these words; I don’t need ‘em now,” he probably should have rethought that. The lyrics are terrible and outright boring. While the second track, “Now,” is an attempted rallying cry, it too falls short with bland half-rhymes and a chorus that is more noise than passion.

“It’s Alright” would be an alright song if it weren’t for Matt’s weak “oh-oh-oh”‘s in between each and every line of real lyrics. Here’s hoping that Matt’s expectations (“One day I’ll remember how the words go”) come true. Though the oh’s are more for an ironic purpose, and were probably a lot funnier on paper – in recording they just become annoying. Unfortunately, “Overexposed” continues in the same fashion. Literally, half of the album is singing on vowels. 

“I Said” is a response to many critics having called Matt & Kim’s a very childish sound; Matt dons the classic because-I-said-so approach to explaining his reasoning, and his repetition of “I said, I said, I said” is just as irritating as a child saying the same.

In a stroke of likely unintended irony, the second-to-last track “Much Too Late” is actually the best track on the album – and even that one isn’t that great. We find hints of the passion missing from the rest of the record in the drop between “some kind of I’m some little phony, thing is you don’t” and “know me!” However, this – coupled with the almost eight-bit instrumentals – aren’t enough for the track to hold any real merit.