Don’t hate on Ted Leo – He might just melt your face off

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living With The Living (2007)

(The post title is referring to this)

A lot of people ripped on “Living With The Living” when it came out. It’s hard to blame someone for being disappointed after Ted and the Pharmacists put out three stellar albums in a row from 2001-2004, but by no means does that mean this is a bad album. People complained that it was too long, too bloated, too political, too poppy, too much anything, in fact. Are these legitimate complaints? Yes, to some degree, but it’s not worth writing off an album that’s got plenty of fantastic songs.

“Living With The Living” doesn’t miss a beat through the first eight songs, my favorite being “A Bottle of Buckie.” It may be the most perfect song Ted Leo has ever written. “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb” seems to divide people, but I think it’s fine. It’s an aggressive, half-singing, half-talking kind of song, but it’s generally enjoyable. Some listeners, particularly Christians, may have a very difficult time dealing with “Annunciation Day/Born on Christmas Day” in which Ted Leo explicitly declares what he thinks of religion over some U2-esque guitar work.

I just can’t understand what people hated so much about this record. Stylistically it bears more resemblance to the Ted’s earlier album, “Tyranny of Distance” than “Shake the Sheets.” And “Tyranny of Distance” is a very good album, and I think any Ted Leo fan would agree with me on that. And sure, sometimes politics in music can turn people off. But anybody who bought this album when it came out was surely aware of Ted Leo’s politics already, so I don’t take that as a valid excuse.

So give it a chance. There’s more good than bad on this album. And with Ted Leo, the good is always very, very rewarding.

Rating: 3.75/5

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