Though best remembered for the beautifully raunchy, but oh so catchy tune “The Dirty Song,” Athens, GA’s duo Cars Can Be Blue are back with their strongest full length yet, Trace the Tension. Bringing to mind everyone from The Muffs to The Moldy Peaches, the band is still playful and still irreverent, but a tad more focused with this latest 14-song offering.
From the pumped up album opener “You Gave Me,” complete with handclaps, to the (slightly) more reflective “Battleship,” and a song like “Poor for Life,” a pop punk ditty the sounds like something the Dead Milkmen would have been proud to have written, Trace the Tension is a solid endeavor from start to finish.
With 14 songs you expect more than a couple tracks here would simply be space fillers – air at the top of the chip bag – but there is little fat here to trim. Each track brings something to the album.