Is This Thing On

Minneapolis five-piece Is This Thing On would like to take you back to the nineties. In nine songs and change, their debut album mines the FM soundwaves of a bygone era, churning out a consistent batch of marketable earworms and low-stakes singalongs. It feels like a ploy to lay nostalgia so bare, but Is This Thing On presents their music with the conviction and assurance of a veteran group, and every song on the album achieves easy endearment.

All five of the musicians at work (standard lineup of two guitars, bass, drums, and keys) perform with competence and stability. The mixes are restrained, and the playing doesn't demand focus--nor do the progressions or structures: these are songs built around vocals, and the vocals rise to the occasion. Both in delivery and melody, the rough edges are sanded off in favor of the frontman’s buttery accessibility, and the honey-tinged harmonies of the group’s other singers further elevate the appeal. The opening track “Pizza Hut Commercials” sets the scene almost immediately: a charmingly picked out progression of two alternating chords provides the foundation for the vocals’ prize-winning melody to build upon. Behind this, a fascinating cast of harmonies and processed vocals give that melody depth and movement. This is how good pop worked in the nineties, and long before, and long since. They keep it interesting with bizarre lyrics, interesting sounds, and gently nuanced playing, but these are songs to be sung.

Comfort is key for Is This Thing On. Rarely does a song deviate from a major key, and rarely do these capable musicians step over the line of supporting the pristine vocals. While there are more than a lot of touchstones in the sonic template (try not to think of Semisonic or Fountains of Wayne), and while regional flavors seep into their sound as well (traces of both The Hold Steady and the Jayhawks are woven throughout), it’s not until the band lets loose and gets a little noisy on the album closer “Same” that they truly approach what their influences accomplished so long ago.

Is This Thing On? plays it a little safe, much like a performer posing the album’s titular question. But fortunately for us, the answer to that question is yes. It’s on, and it’s on to something good.