Local Review: Spirit City – We’re All Insane

Spirit City
We’re All Insane

Plastic Albino Records
Street: 09.09
Spirit City = Death Cab for Cutie + PlayRadioPlay! + Innerpartysystem

Finding an album that has the ability to lead its listener through every emotion and back again is difficult—finding one that does this while its listener is dancing and singing along? That’s a challenge. Powerful lyrics with upbeat musical elements are my jam, and bandmates Nate Young (lead vocals, guitar), Austin Young (keyboard/synths) and Cori Place (bass) know how to please indie-pop lovers like myself.

The album’s title song is catchy, upbeat and repeats a true, universal theme: “We’re All Insane.” However, amid dancing and singing along with the song, the lyrics creep up quickly: “We’re all the same / We’re all the same / And all I wanna do is get away from you—break away.” Much of the song focuses on being an “oddity”—and how that’s actually a good thing. The last repeated lyrics, sounding almost like a mantra, are, “I got a mind of my own.” Hell yes—I just found my new motivational song.

“Do What You Want” has fun, electronic elements that brought me back to some of my favorite ’80s tunes. I found myself easily singing along to the track and couldn’t help but dance to the music. “Make Me Whole” brings it down a notch with a slow-swaying song that stays fixed in the groove of the overall album.

“Stillness” is my favorite track to listen to. It is a lovely electronic piece that halted my dancing-groove mode and made me just sit down, relax and really listen to the music. Obsessed with the harmonies in the song and caught off-guard by the sheer emotion in the lyrics—“Time is sinking in the nothingness, in the nothingness”—I played the song over and over on repeat.

We’re All Insane is a demanding album—in a brilliant way. It demands that you listen, that you dance, that you soak in nostalgia from the past and that you truly think about your life in the present. As it leads you through a river of emotions and an array of dance-grooves, We’re All Insane carries some heavy, human elements with its indie-pop music. Spirit City will definitely be on my radar from now on. –Alex Vermillion