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Rats With Wings
Rats With Wings
Independent
David Hurtgen and Brendan Fitzpatrick formed Rats With Wings in 2005, after 15 years of occasional collaborations and individual pursuits. Now the Brooklyn-based indie-pop duo, together with an evolving cadre of talented musicians, have put together a collection of charmingly quirky, enthusiastically subversive tracks that call to mind three decades of musical styles and political disappointments. Musically, the tracks maintain a steady thematic structure that blends seamlessly from one song to another. Individual tracks, however, evoke everything from string orchestras, '60s pop, '70s rock anthems, '80s-era synth bands, to a Doors-bluegrass mash-up, and a stately foxtrot suitable for competition ballroom dancing (if produced by Tim Burton). Lyrically, Rats with Wings weave a dreamy façade behind which they poke a sharp, derisive stick at a herd of issues, including politicians, teachers, cops, death, conformity, consumerism, and paranoia. One imagines that lyricist Fitzpatrick has a really interesting reading library. Five of the eleven tracks on Rats With Wings are re-releases: "Safari," "Everwise Muskellunge," and "Rock Brigade" were on last year's Tiny Guns EP, and "Cocaine vs. Pot and Beer" and "Don't Melt" were contributions to The Baxter movie soundtrack. Picking favorites on this CD is a challenge: "Do the Death" is fabulous, as is "Big Loco" and "Rock Brigade," but for different reasons. "The Teacher" recalls high-school PTSD, and "Terror" makes me laugh. "Safari" and "Robot Suicide" are simply whack. Rats With Wings is like a sugar-coated sulfur tablet--complex, delightfully poisonous, and strangely addictive.
— Lyn Dunagan
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