By Melody LauEnergy is something that Brooklyn, NY duo Matt and Kim have in abundance. Over the course of three albums, the indie-pop couple — think a more cheerful, synth/drum version of Jack and Meg White — have maintained a sugar rush of raucous hits, perfecting the formula for earworm confections. Start with Kim Schifino's manic drumming, throw in dashes of Matt Johnson's propulsive electronica and top it off with Johnson's childlike melodies and voila, a Matt and Kim tune ready to crunch your ears. The band's fourth album, Lightning, employs said recipe. Each song hurtles into the next with an urgency of children making a mad dash to a playground, as Matt and Kim's tracks often straddle a line between kid-friendly jingles and block party anthems. Although decidedly a step up from their last effort, the sloppy and forgetful Sidewalks, Lightning still finds the duo stuck in the same routine. Numbers such as the slow-downed "I Said" and electric single "Now" show signs of Matt and Kim grappling with the next step in their sound, but are unfortunately still bogged down by the redundancy of Johnson's elementary songwriting. Listeners will soon be coming down from the adrenaline rush of Matt and Kim's frantic tunes and it's going to take a lot more than this to keep fans going for the long haul. (Fader)
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