Elias & Wizzkids - A Little Mess

"A Little Mess is a jangly, bouncy celebration of the auditory absurd. Harmonica, flute, howled lyrics and harmonized choruses crowd the album, which bears more in common with the lovelorn 1950s boy-girl group movement than their less accessible, cool as ice Svenska indie pop counterparts 1. Indirectly addressing this disparity, their myspace banner announces, 'We're though being cool. ' Lyrically, Elias and his beloved Wizzkids skew darker. When you're not on stage hosting a geek-filled love fest... well, sometimes life kinda sucks. The album tracks the slow, determined progression into adulthood and everything that makes you lose sleep along the way. You turn 24, and wonder where your job, house, wife and kids are. Naturally, steps are taken to rectify the situation. "The job" finds Elias forced to answer the eternal burning question: What the hell are you supposed to say/when they ask you to describe yourself in just three words? in "The Mermaid," Elias works on the lack of wife problem. However, things don't go as swimmingly as he'd hoped 2. Despite being told there are many other fish in the sea, Elias moans, You were never a fish/no, you were a mermaid to me. Yeah, can't help you there dude, I'm still wearing waterwings. The album ends, if not with the answers on how to avoid this inevitable angst-filled rite of passage (although "The Dance" does make a good case for frolicking away the blues), then at least a temporary respite from that whole growing up thing. Elias tucks himself in at night, Wizzkids accompaniment slowly fading into the distance, and sighs, When you're lying in bed and not sleeping yet and you can still feel the fresh taste of toothpaste, isn't it nice to turn out the lights and say goodnight? Yes. Yes it is. Just don't grow up too much before your next album, okay?"