By Ryan Broderick

Breathe Carolina’s full-length, “Its Classy Not Classic,” might not be on your radar, but the two-piece ’emo-tronica’ band has been burning through the Myspace/Purevolume scene for some time now. And yes, ’emo-tronica’ is now an actual genre you can choose to have on Myspace. Isn’t that cute? Their previous independent release “The Gossip EP” was full of pretty straightforward Garage Band-produced dance music, full of lyrics clearly meant for the 12-year-old girl inside of everyone.

As far as progress, there isn’t much. “It’s Classy, Not Classic,” is still something you wouldn’t want to be caught dead listening to, but the production quality is a bit better. The synth work is tighter and the drum machines are catchier, but overall it’s still pretty far from groundbreaking. Breathe Carolina is a low rent version of Cobra Starship (which definitely gives you a clue in to how kitschy they actually are), but from a young band, it’s not a bad start.

From a technical standpoint, there’s not much to grab. It’s missing a fullness that always seems to be absent from electronica bands, like “Metro Station” or “Hellogoodbye”. The synths are bright and atmospheric and thumping, but without a real instrument or unautotuned voice on the album, there’s definitely a human element desperately needed.

Another problem with the album is the lyrics. They’re outrageously over-sexualized and dumb about it to boot. For instance:

“And if you travel

alone can I come too, I’ve

been trying so hard to get it

in to you.

(Oh, oh yeah)

And if you wanna

ride,

travel from the inside.

I’m the light, every

body’s rocking my way.

I’ll take another pill,

I’m not afraid.”

No matter how auto-tuned your voice is, if you’re singing nonsensical pick-up lines about scoring with hot ladies you’re still an asshole. And unfortunately that’s Breathe Carolina’s biggest problem, their “asshole factor”.

But people seem to be latching on to their sound, and whether it speaks to the deplorable nature of the Myspace music scene, or some odd fascination with the idea of hardcore vocals over the “Numa-Numa Song,” without any sense of humor about it, they just sound idiotic.

It was only a matter of time before the level of irony within the emo scene became so thick that someone decided N’Sync needed skinny jeans.

(studentlife.com)

(amazon.com)