Cars Can Be Blue
All the Stuff We Do
Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records

Everyone has a gimmick to set themselves apart from the herd. In the case of Cars Can Be Blue it is their juxtaposition of cute twee pop with crude, uber-sexual lyrics. The Massachusetts two piece have stuffed their latest record, All the Stuff We Do, to the brim with innuendos and dick jokes, each one seemingly more obvious and easy than the one that proceeds it. While some might find the contrasting elements of their music unique or the blunt vulgarity of their lyrics humorous, Cars Can Be Blue’s heavy reliance on the shock value of four letter words makes them more of a novelty than a legitimate commodity.

Too many of the tracks on All The Stuff We Do rely on words like cunt, cock & bitch for their humor. Not even the enthusiastic outbursts of singer/guitarist Kelly Brook can keep the record from coming off as lazy. ‘Retarded Retard’, ‘Dirty Song’ and ‘Abortion’ are the highlight tracks, showcasing the band at their lyrical ‘best’. As for the music itself, it is everything you’d expect from by-the-numbers twee pop; jangly guitars, constant splash of the hi-hat, cute boy-girl vocals.

I am not doubting the fact that there is a niche for this style of brash, tongue in cheek pop music (afterall, there used to be a time when Adam Sandler could sell records), but the lack of substance between each dirty word leaves All the Stuff We Do as an uninspired and ultimately cheap listen.