Run For Cover Lovers

This album is just plain silly. But not in that extremely self-conscious way that could be taken as clever parody; when the Run For Cover Lovers warble off-key, their childish, simple lyrics about puppy love crushes ("Cute Cook From the Homemade Café") or doing a Boy Scout good deed ("Blind Guy, Cherry Guy") over a superfluous amount of Casios makes you wonder if they're taking the piss. Yet it's never taken to a level that's actually funny, and some of the songwriting is really pretty sad. The album opens with an ode to the open road and its cheap motels (sample lyric: "Oh, the clean towels! The crisp sheets! On the sign they say 'Free Cable!'"), and continues on in similar mind-numbing fashion. There's a half-hearted attempt to rewrite Shakespeare from the point of view of an untold other woman in Romeo and Juliet, but they don't even bother to think up something to call her ("There's a babe - I can't remember her name"), and it just comes off as sad. "I'm a Freak" could have been a Moldy Peaches song, if it had any balls, as could the rest of the album. RFCL's style of songwriting is a few notches away from that NYC duo's daring, witty and hyperactive juvenile delinquency, but they never push it far enough. When they do, like in the double entendres of "Baby's Got Her Dirty Shoes On," it brings a smile. If you're going to be childish and silly, you may as well go all out.