“Pavement... making sweet, sweet love to the All Girl Summer Fun Band” Single Review: The Young Playthings - Shes A Rebel

From Airwaves Back, by Sara Curtis on 15 February 2006

So, I was thinking to myself the other day "man, I haven't heard a fun new band for a while". I mean, really, when everything you keep being recommended is either shit, or good but mellow or overly intelligent, you start yearning for some simple pop-rock that will make you sing and dance. Enter The Young Playthings. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with well thought-out, intelligent music, in fact I am quite a fan of it. Nor am I saying The Young Playthings aren't making well thought-out, intelligent music, but these guys sound like they're out to have a good time, y'know?

The A-side of this single, "She's A Rebel", makes me want to make comparisons to Pavement, if they were making sweet, sweet love to the All Girl Summer Fun Band. That means it's very pop-rock, very fun and the melodies are a delight. I'm not going to say it's wildly different or obscure or any of those things, because it's not. It's just a good, clean, fun song. Basically, imagine every song you've heard about some guy thinking some rebellious girl is a bit fit, make it less shit - no, make it good - and this is where you arrive.

The first of two B-sides, "Stretch Your Arms Out to the Dutch", is better than the title track. Not only is the title a bit good, but the lyrics pretty, uh, special. Opening with the line "A Volvo is a Swedish car / and even in America / a white one will go pretty far", you know you're in for something... different. And as they continue to tell tales of some lady named Christina throwing up in a bush, and pet cemeteries ("no smaller plots for the goldfish / how do you know your cat's Jewish?"), they sure make for a good listen. Because I have run out of things to say, I will just say this song reminds me of Built To Spill and move on.

There's not much to say about the other B-side, "You're The One". I mean, it's good and everything and I like listening to it, but you should be able to tell what The Young Playthings are like by now. So I guess I'll close this up. If you want to czech this single out, you'd better hurry. It's limited to 120 copies, and their last single, "Love U Like That", sold like hot cakes. I'm not quite sure how hot cakes sell, but you can bet it's good! There are six different covers for the single, however! Each one features one of six "iconic" rebels: Georgia O'Keefe, Louise Brooks, Jenna Jameson, Ann Bonny or Emmeline Pankhurst. Pretty sweet, no?

Rating: 4/5