Wheat
Per Second Per Second Per Second... Every Second (Aware/Columbia)
By: Alex Steininger
With a four year gap between their third full-length, Hope and Adams, and their new full-length, Per Second Per Second Per Second... Every Second, Wheat hasn't lost a step. Where most bands would fold during label disasters (getting signed, seeing the label go under, and shopping for a new label deal), Wheat kept at it, and the wait was worth it.Per Second Per Second Per Second... Every Second continues with their smart, exploratory nature of pop music, but this time around the record has a brighter, tighter production to it, the songs are flawlessly arranged, and the delivery is top-notch.
Bringing back Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann (who also did Hope and Adams), this Cambridge, Massachusetts trio brings forth glorious pop songs alongside complete with lush arrangements.
I Met A Girl opens the album. It is an instantly hooky, quirky, jangle-y pop song that finds the band pushing the boundaries of pop, while also playing well within its walls. The band sings "I met a girl I'd like to know better, but I'm already with someone" in the chorus, and you sing along excitedly; the listener never had a chance.
Other highlights include "Life Still Applies", a fine mixture of buoyant indie-rock and commercial viability, an oxymoron at first, but a cocktail only Wheat could both afford to pull off and do so successfully when attempted. "Go Get The Cops", a laid-back, mid-tempo, beautifully layered pop song that turns down the energy, but doesn't lose a step in the process. And "The Beginner", a warm, cozy piano ballad, complete with the band's experimental side, as they toy around with various background sounds to flesh the song out.
On Per Second Per Second Per Second... Every Second there isn't anything Wheat can't do. Whipping out all the big guns, they deliver a mesmerizing, truly astonishing pop masterpiece that ups their previous releases and poises them to be both a cult favorite and a commercial breakthrough act. I'll give this an A-.
