Music Review of Dog Problems

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 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.