Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the explainer or view the master list.
Artist: The Presidents Of The United States Of America
Title: Love Everybody
Released: 2004
Genre: power pop
The Presidents Of The United States Of America burst onto the 90s rock scene with Lump, an up-tempo number that was just weird enough to sit neatly in second-wave grunge. They were goofy punk with a gimmick: the entire band only used five strings. The singer/bassist plays a "basitar"--a guitar that only has two lower-gauge strings (read as: bass strings) and the guitarist plays a "guitbass" which has three guitar strings. There's a sense of punk minimalism that I admire in that, although their songs have some remarkable underlying complexity. They only use five strings, but they really use them to their fullest extent.
Love Everybody is the album the recorded after a brief hiatus in the early aughts. It's a little less self-serious than previous efforts--not that POTUSA were ever very self-serious, but there's a sheen of angst on early songs like Kitty and Peaches whereas this album leans hard into the pop. It's joyful and bouncy, even while the songs don't appear to be about anything especially meaningful. Some Postman is about not getting mail delivered. Poke And Destroy is about boy children and their need to poke and break things. Album closer Jennifer's Jacket is a stripped down ballad about a jacket that's falling apart.
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