THE GET UP KIDS On A Wire (Vagrant) Rating: NN Rating: NN
Kansas City “Don’t call us emo” indie-pop threats the Get Up Kids generally tend toward shoe-gazer numbers laced with hardcore-style guitar riffs. But they’ve tried to break away from their emo roots with On A Wire, a Dashboard Confessional-type album of wistful, limp-dick love songs with way too earnest lyrics that might’ve made me melt when I was 14. It’s hard to distinguish between individual tracks on the record — they’re all pretty, but ultimately generic — not unlike what you’d hear on a Goo Goo Dolls disc.
