The thought that had been running through my mind while listening to Eskimo Beach Boy ("Wow, this guy sounds like Bono -- except not all self-serious and over-emotive like early U2 or hyper-ironic like later U2 or desperately seeking renewed commercial success like the new U2 -- fronting a hot-shit indie rock band with good ideas and a varied style") made more sense when it turned out that Ten Speed Racer actually are a hot-shit indie rock band from Ireland, with quality control as tight as the Guinness brewery. The band's first full-length collects its three Irish-only singles, along with seven other inventive, catchy tunes with surreal names like "Sidewalk Monkey Typhoid" and "Lunar Junkies". But who said guitars and drums, bass and vocals had to actually make sense, especially when they lodge in your head with this much insistence?
Ten Speed Racer's strength is cranking out music that's instantly familiar, while at the same time absolutely energizing. The second track, "Knife" (unaccountably not one of the band's previous singles), opens with a quick strum of electric guitar that's joined by the rest of the group for an irresistible romp. The rueful chorus ("Could it be that I adore you?/Heaven help me") and insistent melody aren't innovative; you've heard this type of romantic two-and-a-half minute fuzzball before, but that doesn't mean a damn thing when the song's actually playing. You wish it would never stop, yet its energy is so contained that adding minutes would only court anticlimax. "January" yearns, "Eskimo Beach Party" stomps, "Lunar Junkies" hides a layer of electronic squiggles as a nearly subconscious counterpoint to the song's brooding surface. A melancholy romantic lament with swirls of feedback and piano set to a thudding beat, the pretty "Yo Yo" engages with the sadly ingratiating chorus, "You can shout at me like a stray dog/And rub my ears in the garden sun/I'll wag my tail whenever you're near me/And watch every move just 'cause it pleases you."
One of Eskimo Beach Boy's greatest strengths is its pacing, which moves easily between mid-tempo numbers, quiet meditations and the full-throttle rock of tracks like "Knife" and the title song. The first nine songs occupy only half an hour, with each ending well before staleness sets in. ("Yo Yo", the nearly ten minute closer, might have been trimmed, but by that point the album has you in its thrall and it's useless to protest this small indulgence.) The group's ability to arrange these songs so effectively provides an indication of their individual quality: there's not a failed attempt in the bunch. Ten Speed Racer should find themselves welcomed to these shores with open arms.
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