Pitchfork

It has been argued that a yearning for lost innocence is at the root of most indie pop, dating back to 1960s-obsessed, often synth-wary bands like the Smiths and some of the C86 and Sarah Records acts. The Boy Least Likely To's undeniably twee pop plays on this theme more openly than most, shrinking in the face of adolescent pathos by retreating to a Christopher Robin-like world of the imagination. The "country disco" that the UK duo of Pete Hobbs and Jof Owen introduced on their wonderfully ramshackle, self-released debut, The Best Party Ever (Pitchfork's #47 album of 2005), gets refined to a cleanly produced science on "I Box Up All the Butterflies", which follows "A Balloon on a Broken String" and "The Boy Least Likely To Is a Machine" as the latest glimpse of their forthcoming sophomore album.

Previously played on TBLLT's most recent tour, "I Box Up all the Butterflies" could soundtrack a teddy-bear parade (allow me to make a video suggestion), with the now-familiar banjo, recorder, tinny synths, jaunty acoustic guitar, spindly guitar leads, pitter-patter percussion, and Owen's high, whispery vocals. The song is no picnic, though, as Owen invokes childhood images like dandelions and butterflies only to destroy them: "It might sound stupid but something about it made me wanna tear it apart," he sings. It's a song poised on the brink of adulthood. While that's a place critics often fear to revisit-- it seems like there's always somebody who's embarrassed about having loved the Smiths-- it's also an isolated, emotionally intense space where silly little pop songs can have the most meaning, as Morrissey himself predicted on "Rubber Ring". Their sound may be (brace yourselves) maturing, but TBLLT aren't ready to grow up just yet.

[from a forthcoming album; due Summer 2008 per the band's MySpace]