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Category IconAlbum Review: The Format - Dog Problems

September 14th, 2007 by Brian

I’m a sucker for waltzes (listening, not dancing), so when I heard The Format’s Dog Problems in Dan’s car a week ago, it immediately made an impression. The first two songs, “Matches” and “I’m Actual” have the familiar 3/4 tempo, and the second actually sounds like an extension of the first. When that is followed up by the outstanding “Time Bomb” you have yourself one of the best 1-2-3 album openings I’ve heard in a long, long time.

The Format - Dog Problems

The other masterpiece on Dog Problems is “If Work Permits”, which starts with some pleasant guitar strumming, gets a nice bass boost around 0:54 and steadily gets louder until it turns into a rocking ballad. Not typically a lyrics man, I particularly enjoyed the “ Sometimes, when sailors are sailing /They think twice, about where they’re anchoring /And I think, I could make better use of my time on land.” Ain’t that the truth.

Dog Problems is poppier than most music that I enjoy, but expanding my musical taste in this instance has been thoroughly enjoyable. Here are a couple of MP3 tracks to whet your appetite.

Time Bomb
If Work Permits

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2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dan Russell Sep 17, 2007 at 2:33 am

    Glad you liked it! I only found it thanks to some of the MP3 blogs you turned me on to.

  • 2 Idetrorce Dec 15, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce