Phillips Head vocalist Jason Irwin said he writes about four songs every time he breaks up with a girlfriend.
His laments in the band's CD, "II," will warm the hearts of self-pitying listeners.
Melodies jump from distorted guitar licks and rattling high-hats to crisp, succinct bass rhythms and staccato vocals. The transitions had me swinging my head in circles and hopping along to sounds reminiscent of Green Day or The Smiths.
Comparisons aside, the new Phillips Head CD stays true to their claims of originality.
You can almost picture vocalist Jason Irwin's sneered upper lip as he testifies his love in "Something About You."
Witty lyrics on songs like "1-900 Girl" grab sardonically at the desperation of a man cuddling in bed with a risqué magazine and his favorite phone sex line. Irwin's writing conjures a new spell of Nabokovian pleasures in "Old Enough for Me."
Bass pluck for bass pluck and cymbal clash for cymbal clash, this CD is full of amusing woes and playful melodies that prove Phillips Head is surfing ahead of the post-punk wave.
I can almost hear matchbox twenty CDs shattering on bedroom floors as pop music fans ditch Rob Thomas and his whiny gig for something a little less corporate. Phillips Head promises the underground roots and local loyalty that should have fans badgering them for another album just like this one.
Reprinted from The Post Star, Friday, August 31, 2001