Unfortunately for the Apples in Stereo, Valentine's Day is over. We're all still recovering from a sugar high, and it may be a while before we again look wistfully at the candy aisle.
So, with no remaining cravings for sweets and the inability to frolic in the sunlight due to the several inches of ice outside, this may very well be the least likely time of the year for such a sugar-coated album as the Apples' "New Magnetic Wonder" to attract listeners.
It's really no surprise that the Apples in Stereo are rumored to have formed due to a common interest in the Beach Boys. Though the sickeningly catchy melodies show up in each of their songs, the music would not interest the surf crowd. It's too upbeat and contains too much guitar distortion for the beach crowd.
If you've never heard the Apples in Stereo, even after their recent cameo on the Colbert Report, try to imagine a bobble-head doll, perhaps a kitten, bobbing up and down for about an hour under a rainbow. It may seem cute at first, it may even get you in the mood to do some frolicking, but after about a half hour, it could be a real kitten for all you care, you're searching for the nearest hammer.
The first track, "Can You Feel It," embodies the band's uplifting sound that exists in their earlier tracks. Singer Robert Schneider calls on the listeners to "turn up your stereo," but you want to do more than that. You want to put your fist up in triumph, leap five feet in the air, kick your legs out to the side and do a freeze frame. The band also seemed to have summoned the over-exuberance of Will Ferrell, as the song's chorus is dominated by a driving cowbell on the upbeat.
The song is also one of the album's longest, and any pop punk band will tell you that such songs should never break the three minute mark. These four minutes and ten seconds may leave some listeners shouting, "Yes we feel it, and we'll probably still be sore in a week."
The enormous track list of 24 songs is a bit misleading, since 11 of them are short interludes. Though interludes often seem like a waste of space, it works to the album's benefit to have a little water with all that Prozac; not to mention that the slower style reinforces comparisons to The Flaming Lips.
Such a cheery album, after all, can be greatly appreciated by many to be a form of therapeutic medicine.
Listeners should be cautious to take advice from the Apples, though. Apparently the 12 month orbit of the earth doesn't fit in with the band's production schedule, since they have no reservations about releasing a song such as the childlike "Sun is Out," which, over a cheery flute part, most likely being played by a mythical woodland creature, goes "The sun is out (2x)/So come on (6x) shake it out!"
Unless they mean shake as in "to shiver," you would think that the band was taunting us from their temperate hideout in Jamaica, instead of their hometown of Denver when a snow like we had last week is as common as a hippie jam festival.
The brightest (in a good way) spot on the album appears early on in "Sunndal Song," which offers a refreshing female voice, which is frankly better suited for the genre. The track features a wailing chorus and guitar solo that are usually signals that the album is wrapping up, instead of just track seven of 24.
The fact that the album contains as many songs as most bubble gum rock bands write in their careers is impressive at first, but are signs that the Apples should have remembered that good albums evoke more than one mood and tempo.
So, in trying out the Apples in Stereo, it is best to take your doctor's advice: an Apple a day.
Tackle this album slowly and you may appreciate the consistently well-written and well-produced tracks, but listening to the album as a whole might make you start to question the feasibility of listening to apples (especially in stereo!) and such questions are better left unanswered.
