Music Reviews
Album Review: Office – ‘Night at the Ritz’
By Jeff Swindoll Sep 25, 2007, 16:41 GMT
First things first, Office is not Steve Carrell’s band. Now that we’ve cleared that up, they are a Chicago band made up of Scott Masson (singer/songwriter), Erica Corniel (drums), Alissa Hacker (bass), Jessica Gonyea (keyboards), and Tom Smith (guitar).
The band had self released several albums, but came to attention on iTunes and their performance at SXSW in Austin. They recently signed with Scratchie Records (a division of New Line Records) in 2006 and ‘Night at the Ritz’ is the first release under their new label and the first to be widely available on compact disc (well outside Chicago anyway).
The album features new songs, but most of them are culled from the self released album, ‘Q&A’ in 2005, or demos. The new songs appear to be “The Ritz” and “Paralyzed Prince.”
The album starts strong with the up-tempo “Oh My.” “Wound Up” is the iTunes “Single of the Week” that got all the buzz going and is on the album and is quite the tune.
I thought the album is quite good (they’ve had a lot of practice in Chicago) and worthy of them being discovered by both their new label and a wider listening audience.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Did you really say 'bump it'?? You gotta be kidding me.
Is this all Chicago has to offer? Ego-trippin' preppy R&B wanna-be hip hoppers or a glut of sickeningly sweet, blindingly white emo pop that won't offend your grandma!
I thought I was just getting old but from what I remember, you're suppose to get soft as the years take their toll. Whatever happened to the midwest glory days of edgy, adventurous new sounds like industrial and punk - Anybody remember Wax Trax? (No wonder why Ministry ran for the hills!)
The plaid pants, buddy holly glass wearin' hipsters over at pitchfork should love this (providing of course that it doesn't become too popular!)
I give up.
page: 1
wordswillSep 26th, 2007 - 17:29:28
go pick up this album and bump it in traffic on your way home from the office..
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