Austinist Album Review: Shiny Toy Guns

It was probably inevitable. When Franz Ferdinand and the Killers whetted the kids’ appetites for catchy, electro-dance pop, we should have known that a slew of imitators armed with keyboards and laptops would follow. It hasn’t been all bad, but sometimes we just have to ask oursevlves, “Why?” Such is the case with We Are Pilots, the new release from Shiny Toy Guns. The would-be buzz band of the season shows some potential on occasion, but more often than not they seem lost in their own lack of experience, delivering a redundant and entirely unnecessary addition to the genre.

Even on the stronger tracks of the album, the band seems to be doing nothing more than borrowing from what has worked elsewhere. The opening track, “You Are the One,” kicks off with amped-up synths that are something more than reminiscent of The Faint, before collapsing into a clichéd imitation of ‘80’s new wave, albeit with the kind of overblown lyrics that one would sooner expect to find in a hair metal ballad. The first single, “Le Disko,” is certainly the album’s strongest point, though even there the band doesn’t quite manage to hit its stride. Take into account the aimless drivel that surrounds it, and there just isn’t much to recommend the album. True, there are a couple decent tracks, but you’re not likely to feel like your iPod is incomplete without them.