Darwin Deez released his first two track EP, Radar Detector, at the beginning of this month, April 10th to be precise. I really enjoy Darwin’s song writing style, he seems to have been able to get fun distilled down to a sound and then combine that with some great pop beats and simple but enjoyable guitar bits. On his new album he’s toned down the ‘happy-go-lucky’ themes and some of the resulting tracks are some great, sometimes chilled out, listens. 

Constellations
The opening track has a nice relaxed motion about it. During the chorus ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ vocals fit the sound of the total track quite nicely, and the whole track has a nice spacey feel about. The signature guitar that plenty will recognize from the the EP is there too.

Deep Sea Divers
“Deep Sea Divers”continues the feeling set up by “Constellations” and is a slow listen with plenty of spacey, chilled out feelings rippling through it. My issue with it though, is whereas “Constellations”slow progression was enjoyable, it gets a bit irritating that the second track doesn’t really hit a high or change at all, and seems a bit like the same feeling and sound twice over.

The City
This track takes a different turn from the beginning songs. The robotic delivery of his lyrics along with the simple, heavier, guitar certainly changes things up in “The City” and it’s a nice change from the albums beginning sound.

DNA
“DNA” is where Darwin really begins to hit a high on the album. It’s got some great lyrics, a funky pop beat accompanies the usual guitar. All in all, it’s good fun to listen to, and definitely will get plenty of listens on my iPod.

The Suicide Song
I’m not sure about this track, something about it just kind of annoys me. The high guitar tone doesn’t seem to go well with Darwin’s vocals, and it all seems a bit messy. Probably the worst song on the album so far, not to say it’s terrible though.

Up In The Clouds
Another song where the album falls a bit short. The overly ‘same-y’ nature of “Up In The Clouds” doesn’t really help with trying to differentiate it from Darwin’s other tracks. There doesn’t seem to be anything that makes it stand out.

Bed Space
“Bed Space”is another track where Darwin has gone for that ‘space-y’ feel that started off in “Constellations”, and it was certainly a good move for them to turn up the echo vocals and chilled out nature, because this is one of my favorite songs on the album by far. It’s a great song, and certainly a high for the album.

Radar Detector
The title track from Darwin’s EP, Radar Detector is probably going to be a favorite for most as it’s probably the most catchy and fun song on the album. My favorite part of this track has to be the lyrics, they’re really cool and they’re about a date between a new couple. It’s cute stuff. Also, a side note, the music video is really fun, so be sure to check that out too.

Bad Day
“Bad Day’s”merits mostly lie in its lyrics, about wishing irritating and annoying things on a certain person, and some of them are quite clever as they depict things that I myself would probably wish on someone who annoyed me. It’s also a change of pace. It’s less upbeat, but has a nice bassy progression to it and it’s a good way to finish off the album.

Darwin Deez is a good start for the band, and its fairly original sound will at least last them another album, or maybe EP, but I do think they’ll need to change their sound around to seem fresh and new again. Their sound is good fun, but I think it clings to a few too many pop sensibilities to sound entirely original. Still, pick it up or download it off iTunes for a nice little package of pop/rock fun.