We Really Prefer Not To

Electronic music has become the easy way out for the younger generation to make music.  One only needs to possess a keyboard and a MacBook to produce a decent, danceable single.  Many bands have perfected the genre into a respectable addition to the music world.  Others have made us question our faith in music. The Rhode Island dudes of Make Up Break Up, coming out of their experiences in a post punk band, decided to partake in this musical explosion.  Only being together two short years, Make Up Break Up has released their debut EP We Prefer Not To.

Let’s get ahead of ourselves; We Prefer Not To could be created by anyone who owned the computer program Garage Band and an electric guitar. Great, cheap recordings can be produced using digital recording programs, but it seems like Make Up Break Up didn’t fully understand that concept when recording their EP: high school bands from the suburbs have better quality recordings on their start-up MySpaces. Each track sounds watered-down and lacks the musical depth that most, more professional recordings have. Let me make it clear - I’m not downgrading the entrepreneur format of DIY but there is little creative stamina aboard. But ‘I Dream I’m Stone’ sounds like the vocals were recorded in one the band member’s bathrooms. The strange echo on lead singer Michael Lamantia Jr.’s that occurs on every song sounds like an accident rather than a digital effect. The poor sound quality is an oddity since Jonathan Wyner, who previously worked with David Bowie and Nirvana, mastered the album. Wyner’s resume is nothing but spectacular, so the anomalous sounds that plague could not be a mistake at the hands of a professional of his caliber.  Could Make Up Break Up want their product to sound one-dimensional? Would Wyner sit back and allow it as an addition to his infinite playlist to be written on his epitaph?

The problem may lie in the overall lack of maturity within We Prefer Not To.  Both members of the band, Alexander Laorenza and Lamantia, had greater success in their post-punk band A Trillion Barnacle Relapse previous to starting Make Up Break Up.  So their experience within the music industry has not been a recent development.  But maybe their lack of understanding such - and bleeding into the genre change makes We Prefer Not To the downfall that it is.  When the best word you can say about a band’s EP is that it’s short, there must be something terribly wrong with it.

Amy Dittmeier