Why? | Mumps, etc.

Anticon Records (2012)
By NICK JOHNSTON  |  October 24, 2012
1.5 1.5 Stars

Why

Why?'s fourth studio album has been marketed as a "return to form" after 2009's tepidly received Eskimo Snow, since frontman Yoni Wolf's trademark raps are once again prominent. That claim is bullshit, of course, because Why?'s original form was never this lifeless and boring. The seemingly personal, often witty confessions that defined Wolf's lyrics and informed the poppy backing tracks are unfortunately long gone, replaced by a general ennui regarding the larger balance of his checking account ("Sod in the Seed") and an exhaustion with music itself ("Distance") that bleeds over into the bland, sterilized backing tracks. When Wolf offers (on low point "Waterlines"), "I'd prefer to be some unknown with a sports car/Than pen the dumb pun poems as a poor star," it's hard not to want to grant him his wish. Maybe then he might enjoy making music again.
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    Why?'s fourth studio album has been marketed as a "return to form" after 2009's tepidly received Eskimo Snow , since frontman Yoni Wolf's trademark raps are once again prominent.
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