Cassette Review: Wheatus "The Valentine LP" (Blacktop Records)

[$7 // Limited Edition Tour Cassette (of 50) // https://blacktoprecords.bandcamp.com/album/wheatus-the-valentine-lp-btr039]

As I'm listening to this cassette, song by song up until the very end, it isn't until I hit maybe halfway through the second side before I realize what is going on here.   These are all, for the most part, love songs.   Yet, this is called "The Valentine LP", and so having them as sort of individual love letters just seems so perfect.

A cross between Ten Foot Pole and Coheed, Wheatus also has some hints of Weezer in their sound.   It can be catchy in an almost pop way, but can also bring our the laser synth just as well.    Whatever sort of subgenre you want to put it in of rock music you cannot deny that it has soul.    It's kind of They Might Be Giants and it's kind of heavy at times, particularly at the end with a flurry of guitars that are somewhere between Rush and The Who.

I cannot give you a definitive answer as to why because there are some parts of life that just cannot be explained but rather are felt and I feel like this is a great group of songs for summer.   There are such things as winter songs, but these remind me more of driving around with the windows down, something that can only be done here in the summer time.   Granted, the idea behind this being "The Valentine LP" kind of goes against that as Valentine's Day is in a month here that is typically ice cold, but I feel what I feel.

Keep in mind as I'm listening to this, it's fall here in Connecticut but it feels like a cross between summer and spring at times.  It certainly doesn't feel like we're headed into winter (which will make the inevitable transition that much harsher) so I guess you could really say that this music could be enjoyed at any time and not just as summer fun.

Oddly enough, as it also seems to be a collection of love songs and in that sense about courting I don't really think ideas of this nature relate too well to me in my old and bitter age, but I still enjoy singing and moving along to these songs no matter how much the lyrics might remind me of the me fifteen years ago.