Arms - Kids Aflame

Mon 8th Sep, 2008 in Music Reviews

Kids Aflame is the debut album of Brooklyn based multi-instrumentalist Todd Goldstein. A bedroom-recorded affair, the album took shape over three years with Goldstein playing the great bulk of instruments found within. Arms, if anything, could be labelled the thinking person’s internet sensation.

In 2004, Goldstein took what is the age-old creative crossroads decision and moved to New York, seeking musical inspiration in the city that never sleeps. The songs emerged slowly and surely, but much more simply than ever expected – having a low-fi charm that would give Casiotone for the Painfully Alone some good company or taking a spin with Magnetic Fields along the lost highway.

While the – œdiscovered on MySpace’ tag has been made seemingly ever-synonymous with UK pop-tartlets, it does also unearth the odd gem like Arms. A groundswell of blog support, largely based on Goldstein’s own efforts in gladly sending out home pressings of a seven-song self-released EP to all-interested comers, lead to Arms being signed to Manchester label Melodic via an offer sent through MySpace.

The thirteen tracks on Kids Aflame range greatly in sound and mood – from outgoing and sprightly to sombre and shuffling. There’s an introspective tinge over the album, as real emotion and feelings are certainly not shied away from. The lyrics are usually based upon significant snippets of real life. Take, for instance, Sad Sad Sad’s “days alone are the days you dread the most, counting down the hours in caffeine and morning shows”. It’s not all remorse, longing and regret though. The words have a cleverness and cheek along the lines of those sterling song-writing Stephe(i)ns – Morrissey and Merritt. In fact, most of these songs could well pass muster as the 70th love song.

Being largely home-recorded by Goldstein, who admits he is self-taught in the process, means you shouldn’t expect a lustrous, super-produced sound. Instead, it radiates with a more honest, and almost clumsy, charm. The guitar sound is most prominent, whirring between chiming riffs and intricate melodies and going toe-to-toe with a careening, clanging drum-kit that seems to be urgently competing for your attention. Third track Construction even unexpectedly lurches forward from an almost hypnotic melody into a raucous riff-filled guitar solo and fades out with a drum workout that Animal from the Muppets would be proud of.

The highpoints of the album for mine are what can best be described as the – œnifty pop’ numbers Whirring and Shitty Little Disco. These tracks bound across almost as if Goldstein has cobbled together every great little riff and melody that he could possibly fit within the confines of one song.

Kids Aflame is a most heartening story as well as collection of songs. It is most reassuring that within all the superficiality and short-lived stardom, an everyday, yet astutely talented songwriter can diligently plug away at home and eventually get his songs heard. His album making it out from the bedroom to be released into the wider world is almost the modern musical equivalent of the – œwhat a feeling’ scene of Flashdance.

If this album was a racehorse it would be running around on the first Tuesday in November, as it’s a definite stayer. As Mark Seymour (and countless thousands of late night drunks since) famously sang; “You will throw your Arms around me.”

Arms’ Kids Aflame is out now on Melodic through Inertia.