Originally Released: July 7, 2008
Hype is a strange thing. People first took notice of Black Kids after the Athens Popfest in 2007, shortly after, they release their first EP for free on Myspace. With The Wizard Of Ahhhs, the hype machine's wheels starting turning just about as hard as they possibly could. The band went from almost unknown to huge success on the strength of their first single "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance." Most people remember them, however for two reviews from the ever reactionary Pitchfork Media.
Pitchfork gave The Wizard Of Ahhhs EP an 8.4 and the coveted "Best New Music" tag. The pressure was officially on Black Kids. It would have been hard for them to live up to such a strong start in the first place, but now the eyes of the indie music dorks were upon them, waiting to take them down with the heaviest scoff possible. The release and subsequent Pitchfork review of Partie Tramatic saw an historically loud scoff. The review was simple: "3.3" and a picture of two puppies just captioned "Sorry :-/". A computer error led the score to originally be "0.0," but that was quickly changed.
But that doesn't really tell you anything about the music. Everyone who was interested in that album was going to check the Pitchfork review and they decided to be assholes about it, but that's neither here nor there. Right out front: nothing on the album stacks up to "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You." As a single, that song is almost too good. It's fun, catchy and relatable, add in a shout-along chorus and danceable beat and you have a near perfect pop song.
The second tier of songs are the ones that appeared on the EP, all of which appear again on the album. "I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)" and UK hit "Hurricane Jane" are fun and all, but leadoff track "Hit The Heartbrakes" is one of the few that comes close to INGTYBHTDWY (The abbreviation isn't much shorter is it?) The rest of the songs are solid and fun, but nothing to get too excited over. Maybe "I Wanna be Your Limosine."
Overall, this album is most definitely not a 3.3, but I can sort of understand why they might think that. Like I said, the best songs were already released and reviewed, remove those and you have a solid, but unremarkable album. Anyone that's read Pitchfork for any length of time know that they often reward originality over actual quality and severely punish those that are good, but not great. There are those that would say that Pitchfork shouldn't reflect backlash and that they should review in a bubble, but they're almost like a personality driven site, except the personality is the site itself. Pitchfork is Pitchfork, and Partie Traumatic is pretty good.
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