Skeletons With Flesh On Them – All The Other Animals

Skeletons With Flesh On Them - All The Other Animals

Skeletons With Flesh On Them is surprisingly fun, spirited rock and roll, and has no pretensions or desires to be anything else. In an age where bands feel forced to break genre conventions and be something more than just a good band, this group’s down to earth, grassroots approach is refreshing and sorely needed.

All The Other Animals is a little Margot and The Nuclear So and So’s, a little Caspar and The Cookies, a chunk of Weezer, and a smidgen of Death Cab For Cutie. It’s an earnest record that’s all smiles and heart, and belongs in the collection of anyone whose a fan of two or more of the bands above. It’s totally uplifting, with syrupy melodies and some real bite to the guitars. But ultimately, it lacks ambition. It’s one thing to flip a giant middle finger at the avant garde and the freak folk and the Afro-Cuban Columbia grad studentcore scenes by releasing a simple, good natured rock and roll record, but it’s another thing to sound flimsy and lacking by the second half. Good rock and roll is chunky, visceral, and sharp—at their best, Skeletons With Flesh On Them achieve this, with its own unique brand of quirkiness and light hearted charm. At its worst, the band just sounds washed out—a jumbled, weak mess of noodley chords and paper-thin vocals. At its most worst, all of it just sounds the same—the death knell of any band willing to triumphantly stick to formula.

I get what Skeletons With Flesh On Them is trying to do, and I appreciate it. Fuck being different—what matters is being good, and doing what you love to do, right. Do they succeed? Not totally. Is All The Other Animals a good listen? Absolutely.