Tapes ‘N Tapes – Walk It Off (Beggars Group)
With a few exceptions, Minneapolis is a rock town that probably could fill a nice sized landfill with the singles, cassettes, and compact discs of highly derivative bands. Now that doesn’t mean that all of these highly derivative bands suck, but it’s important to remember if you happen to be one of those highly derivative bands to not take yourself all that seriously.
One of the worst things a highly derivative band can do is to hire an acclaimed producer, particularly one that doesn’t tread lightly behind the mixing board, to man your sophomore album.
I like Tapes ‘n Tapes. I like Dave Fridmann. And in theory I actually like the idea of the two working together. But there is something about the final product of Walk It Off that does not feel gratifying at all. I’ve tried to separate my own opinions of how the band should have gone into record number two versus the way record number two ultimately turned out.