3 out of 5

Label: Self-Starter Foundation

Produced by: John Congleton

We Ragazzi continue to do their thing of Tony Rolando’s dance-punk guitar riffing and sexy time lyrics dueling with Colleen Burke’s crunchy keys and Alianna Kalaba’s poppy drums – a cross-section of no- and new-wave and the synthpop that would crop up a little after this album – and take both some steps forward and back from their excellent sophomore album, The Ache.

The step forward I might attribute to producer John Congelton, whose Paper Chase was pursuing a sound that mapped exceedingly well to Ragazzi’s low-end bomp, but perhaps encouraged the band to give their compositions some space. So while preceding Ragazzi albums had a very get-up-and-go vibe, Wolves With Pretty Lips both allows some songs moments of pause – moments where the shtick can bridge into stronger, rock- or indie-geared sections – and also uses that ebbing and flowing to wring out some really affecting moments, where vocals and melodies surge together and don’t just herky-jerk to a sudden end.

The step back is a limiting one, though, as it feels like this growth requires each song to warm up to it, with every tune otherwise starting at about the exact same place – there are even some pairings where it’s not immediately clear a new song has started. Rolando’s one-liner lyrics also being to tire at this point, verging more on stupid than cheeky, and unfortunately this doesn’t change when he tries to cover other subject matter, with Chicago ode “I’m Gonna Be Fine” an attempted injection of seriousness that unfortunately comes across as rather forced.

Wolves With Pretty Lips, after the fact, seems telling of the band’s overall trajectory: reliant on their particular sound, it was a hunt and peck of trying to change that, but ultimately retreating back to the safety of it. This album was a totally solid one to end on, but had they had a few more goes, perhaps there would have been the confidence to truly evolve, pulling out the strong compositional elements of this album and matching them with The Ache’s energy.