John Maus: We must become the pitiless censors of ourselves (Upset the rhythm)

Possibly the best titled album of the year, and a lovely sleeve image to boot, i've struggled with this one quite a  bit in the couple of months that it has sat there awaiting this write-up. Playing it the wrong speed the first few times didn't help but, once i'd got over that hurdle, i found myself enjoying the squelchy synths but really getting irritated with his vocals - especially on second track 'Quantum leap' where he tunelessly (and reverbed to the max) croons his baritone over a lovely bit of analog action and all i can think of is..........."please shut the fuck up". It improves hugely over that early stumble - as his voice soon comes through with less reverb and less effects, but still grates a bit, although the sheer amount of fantastic hooklines on here astound. When it works - like on the lovely 'Hey moon' or the outstanding 'Cop killer', you really believe that some of the hype is justified and that he really is someone to follow, but he needs to free himself of the effect-laden chains and let his inner pop star shine through. Which is a very unusual thing for me to say indeed.