The Clears are just plain clever and downright fun. For cleverness, you can't find much better than "The Next Thing," the band's machine-age ode to progress ("The next thing is what I want, because I know it will be good/I know I will like it/I know it will work") and a brilliant parody of futurisms of the past -- and, ultimately, of the Clears. And you won't find sneers, but bliss on "Against It," the anti-anthem to everything: "Girls, cars, ice cream, sunglasses, poetry, love, blue skies," and on and on. Even the one cover -- of a Shel Silverstein poem -- is well conceived, raising the musical possibility, "If we were a rock-and-roll band." As for fun, the contradictions and entertainments of these tracks are like a breath of fresh air. Having spent the last decade musically establishing that we're bored and don't care and don't even care that we don't, it's about time we didn't care with some style. The Clears have that covered with live shows that are full-on-glam, complete with vinyl pants, eye-liner, and Gary Numan-ish, de-personalized ambivalence. I'm not sure of how they do it, but somehow none of it comes off as rehash or genre-mulching. Somehow, as stupid as it sounds, the poker-faced Clears are simply and genuinely what they are. -- Jim Hanas
Track Listing:
1. Frozen Fun2. the C.L.E.A.R.S.
3. Against It
4. Money
5. The Next Thing
6. Eggs Montreal
7. Rock 'n Roll Band
8. I Saw You
9. Ties Me Up
10. Blue Doctors
11. Cling Away From Things
12.Chinese Kite