3 out of 5

Label: Sickroom

Produced By: The Ants

Ideabreaker was another one of those discs that had a pleasant pop to it, easy on the ears, and with some toe-tapping moments that’d admittedly stand out.  Vocalist Chad Bryan has a slick slacker sing-song – with less snark than Steven Malkmus, Pavement being a fair comparison here – and the crisply captured but laid-back arrangements of organ, steel guitar, horns and strings make for a light dash of folk ontop of the already comfy vibe.  ‘Statues’ has a break-out noise moment; De La Mancha is a rambling five minute stretch of fun narrative and strumming; Radio has an awesome bass…  So why did nothing stick beyond a vague memory of the sound?  Ah, because The Ants are, essentially, a jam band.  They’re an indie jam band, and they happen to write damn fine pop songs, but the loose non-verse / chorus / verse structure and mixed bag of instrumentation suddenly become clear as parts of a checklist of that band you and your friends sometimes catch down at the local so-and-so.  This isn’t a sleight (to me) because it seems like The Ants are perfectly happy with this; I would say this is exactly the chummy vibe Ideabreaker is aiming for.  So in that, it succeeds.  It’s certainly not the new definitive thing, but if you’ve worn out some of your power pop discs from the late 90s / early 00s, here’s another group to expand your collection, and pop in your player as you’re driving your boyfriend around, looking for a place to eat.

(You are also the type of person who still pops things into players.)