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Rock Kills Kid Are You Nervous? Reprise / Wea

      The problem seems to be timing. After all, timing can make an album more culturally relevant or less so; it can create first impressions that really don’t connect to the work at all. And timing is the issue with Are You Nervous?, a rather good album unfortunately saddled with the burden of a late arrival.

      See, if this album had been released pre-Killers, it would seem defiantly fresh, in its hearkening back to the glory days of U2 and Joy Division. But in a post-Bravery era, where even the phrase ‘electro-pop’ seems synonymous with commercialization and “the scene,” Rock Kills Kid are likely to be lost in the vast shuffle of imitators. Which is a shame, because this debut LP has a unique, wry melancholy about that only true musical devotion could inspire.

      Perhaps the key to Rock Kills Kid comes from their elusive frontman/songwriter, Jeff Tucker. An infamous recluse, Tucker faced severe social anxiety as a teenager, sequestering himself inside his bedroom and later, recording studios. And his influence is everywhere on the album - paranoia and despair linger on nearly every track, like a cocaine addict coming down off the high.

      Opener “Paralyzed” sets up the album fantastically, part-rave, part-goth, and entirely seductive - somehow entirely and nothing like Duran Duran. Though The Cure’s influence was apparent on Rock Kills Kid’s earlier work, Are You Nervous? shimmers with a more stylish 80s production. “Hide Away” is a gorgeous U2 number shamed into submission (“You’ll never know/What could’ve been”) while the title track has a more stripped-down, sedate feel to it. And though there are missteps (the over-produced dance-punk of “Midnight” or “Don’t Want to Stay” come to mind), on the whole this a cohesive LP that blends together a deep array of beauty and mournful loveliness. Too bad Brandon and co. got their first.

-Emily Tartanella 06/05/06