“Dawn of the Dead“
from the album You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
2008
iTunes
The debut album from Reading electro-punks Does It Offend You Yeah? slots neatly into the slipstream behind fellow rave/rock fusioneers Klaxons and Justice, an energetic splicing of bratty vocals, ribcage-quaking synthesisers, choppy rhythms, and occasionally, a few ideas that are all their own. So, while the opening trio of tracks aim mostly to bludgeon in a Justice style — “We Are Rockstars” hitches tapped cowbell and pneumatic beats to keyboard riffs that buzz like angry wasps — a little further in, DIOYY? tone down the technological assault and stretch their songwriting muscles. “Let’s Make Out” is snotty in a faintly dislikable way, like the caddish male answer to Reverend and the Makers’ “He Said He Loved Me.” A couple of tracks prove they’ve got hearts under all the bravado, though: “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good” and “Dawn of the Dead” are anthemic electro-pop in the vein of mid-period Human League, complete with very ’80s live bass and curiously, in the case of the latter, steel drums.