Artist: Head Automatica
Album:Decadence
Label: Warner Bros Records
Rating:
Reviewer: Jonathan Yost

My roommate is extremely picky about his music. It usually has to have a peppy punky sound (i.e. The Strokes, The Hives, hmmm, maybe it just has to start with “the”) or he’ll think it sucks. I came home from work with Head Automatica’s first album, Decadence, put it on and waited for the response. “What is this?” he asked. I ignored him. It wasn’t until track 4, “Please Please Please (Young Hollywood)” came on that I spoke. "What do you think?”

He replied, "It makes my body move."

That’s it. That right there is the best possible description of this album. It turns out whether it’s Glassjaw’s vicious screams or Head Automatica’s dancy pleas for sex, Daryl Palumbo’s voice is perfectly suitable for both. And, Dan The Automator never ceases to amaze me with beat after beat of catchy, but not over the top tunes that can be played on your local alternative station just as easily your local hip-hop station. Anyway, a couple more personal dance sessions later, and I’m sitting down to analyze what I actually like, see if there is anything I don’t, pick out my favorite songs, point out any great lyrics… all the basic critic-type stuff. There’s just such a long list of garbage I like about this album and very little to mention that I don’t.

Sooooo, lyrically, this album is well written. As Palumbo stated in an interview with The Media Fix, the songs are serious but not melodramatic. With the aforementioned "Please Please Please," Head Automatica makes people dance to “…please please please let me devalue what’s inside you.” It sounds as if the Nine Inch Nails' lyrics fell into Bootsy Collins’ funky fingers. I’ve heard several theories as to the meaning of these lyrics, and I could make up some crap about how the Young Hollywood part of the title ties into the lyrics of “I want to fuck you in your god’s hands when your praying bites the dust” as being metaphorical of how Hollywood is a Godless land of Lust and six other great Hollywood habits, but I won’t. Want to know why? Because I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. I just know that the song makes my body move.”

Dance Party Plus is another great track that has danceable screaming throughout. Palumbo’s voice, Dan The Automator’s groovy beats, then, wait a minute, who’s that? Oh, it’s Tim Armstrong, adding extra grit to the song. Palumbo’s apparently too busy “Dancing in and out, dancing in your head” to sing this verse. Armstrong makes the song even stronger. A great song for the ladies would have to be “Beating Heart Baby”. “Baby, you got to get away from me/cuz Baby you want nothing to do with me.” Ahhh, you can sense the love-or the stalking. Pick one. Dancing to creepiness never felt so right. So go buy it. Dance about. Make out with someone. Dance some more… and you will have good times all around.