If I was to describe Cobra Starship frontman Gabe Saporta as an “emo Mika”, many of you would, quite justifiably, run to the nearest gallows. There’s a similar gauche approach to music making, and a kitschy devil-may-care effervescence that permeates both artists. Here, however such histrionics only draw more attention to Saporta’s failings as a musician.
His needy, weedy twang and penchant for objectionably long song titles (Exhibit A: ‘Send My Love To The Dancefloor, I’ll See You In Hell (Hey Mister DJ)’) will immediately drain the colour from your face. As will the shouty ebullience, mollified buzzsaw guitars, and the veneer of adolescent melodrama that infiltrates pretty much every song on the album. I really hope that the kids can see through this boil-in-the-bag rebellion as easily as I did.
Occasionally this campy/angsty exuberance manages to resonate. The upbeat synths of – sigh – ‘The Kids Are All Fucked Up’ make for a boisterous anthem, while the more robust ‘Bring It (Snakes On A Plane)’ is a rowdy punk-pop paean. The incongruous mixture of vocoder, heavy synth guitars, and the odd verse in Spanish on – eye roll motion – ‘The Ballad Of Big Poppa And Diamond Girl’, creates a frivolous but oddly hummable bit of lachrymose Eurovision-y cheese.