February 7, 2008
CD Review: Division Day's 'Beartrap Island'
Artist: Division Day
Album: Beartrap Island
Label: Eenie Meenie Records
Release Date: 10/02/2007
Listen to "Ricky":
We finally got our greasy little mitts on Beartrap Island from LA's own Division Day and have been enjoying it quite a bit. After the sort-of throwaway intro tune, the Beartrap Island kicks into what I think is my favorite tune on the entire album, "Ricky" (listen to it above) - it's rockin' and energetic and a great way to start off.
If there's one thing Division Day fans are familiar with, it's change - every album is different and on each album and even tone and style of each song can be very different. While "Ricky" is post-punk pop, "Tigers" evokes Yo La Tengo, and "Reversible" sounded so much like Interpol I thought my CD changer had busted. Beartrap Island is 14 songs long and I think the emphasis should be on long. It felt like some focus was lost in the middle of the album and the extra tunes added to the original EP are just that, "extras". Despite this, the bookends are fantastic: from "Ricky" and "Catch Your Death" at the beginning, and "Tap-Tap, Click-Click" to "Is It True What They Say?" (especially "Littleblood"!!) at the end, the evidence is that the meat is at the epiphysis of this bone that Division Day has thrown us.



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Er, "Ricky" is one of the extras.