Pitchfork

Cyclists wearing rabbit masks featured in one of last year's best videos (it's a motif with some history) and there's something oddly compelling, as well, about the sight of Mates of State half Kori Gardner riding a motor-scooter down a wintry street with her face all bunnied up. The animal costumes continue to multiply as the video for "Get Better"-- the opening track from Re-Arrange Us, follow-up to the husband-and-wife duo's 2006 Bring It Back-- moves from the snowy outdoors to a kindergarten fantasy scene of dancing animals and exploding hearts (any excuse to plug Guitar Romantic). "Forget all your politics for a while," Gardner begins, over string-draped piano-pop with pounding drums. The voices of Gardner and Jason Hammel are still the focus, but as the song swells to almost Polyphonic Spree-like exuberance, there's a new, larger scale to their sound. "Everything's going to get louder, even if it never gets better," goes the refrain. That much, at least, seems certain this campaign season, at least as long as there are TV pundits capable of feigning outrage over offhand comments for $5 million a year instead of helping explain candidates' positions on boring stuff like actual policy. Fuck, I'd take that job. Steve Choo directs.

[from Re-Arrange Us; due 05/20/08 on Barsuk]