Modern Baseball’s Sports Album
By Andrew Mathwick
***WARNING*** This album may make you want to break your girlfriend’s heart.
What happens when four college kids in Pennsylvania set out to record a baseball-themed album? Surprisingly enough, you get heartfelt songs about relationships that everyone (born after 1990) can relate to in some sort of heartbreakingly great way. Modern Baseball released its debut album, Sports, almost a year ago, and delivers what we’ve all been waiting for - relationship-themed songs that integrate Twitter, iPhones, and Facebook (it was only a matter of time). And, with track titles such as, “I Think You Were In My Profile Picture Once” and “@chl03k,” you’ll be tweeting these lyrics in no time.
What really makes the songs on Sports a grand slam is the surprisingly great (but sad) lyrics and catchy instrumentals. Track 9, “See Ya, Sucker” opens with lead vocalist Brendan Lukens belting out, “I reckon you grew up in a town that said reckon all the time/ Oh, your time’s so vital, you’re concrete.” These lyrics are undoubtedly witty, but as this song rounds first and progresses, we are swung into a song with much more serious lyrics about a girl who won’t leave a town that she, “supposedly hates,” and the narrator doesn’t want to get stuck in that town with her, which leads him to say things like, “though it kills me to say if you get stuck/ I’m just gonna’ leave,” and “I reckon you grew up in a town that said reckon all the time/ but what gives you the right to wreck everything?” Combining witty lyrics with a serious and sort of depressing theme is part of what makes Modern Baseball unique, relatable, and very enjoyable to listen to.
While most of these songs are worthy of listening to in complete darkness by yourself, Modern Baseball manages to bring a few tracks that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to dance to when your friends are around. Track 3, “The Weekend,” for example, is a much more upbeat, pop-punky track, and considering “The Weekend” is a song about a “hipster with glasses,” everyone might enjoy it.
Track 2, “Tears over Beers” is also an instant classic that’ll have you single in no time. Personally my favorite song on the record, “Tears over Beers” truly makes you realize your girlfriend doesn’t actually like you (unless you’re a “meathead”). Let’s say your girlfriend or boyfriend left his or her Facebook open on your computer, and you could look at all their private messages if you wanted, but you weren’t sure you’d like what you see. That’s how “Tears over Beers” will hopefully make you feel.
Modern Baseball transitions us into a new era of alternative music with Sports, an era when we can expect great things out of bands that write lyrics about Twitter, Facebook, and new technology. I highly recommend Sports.
To learn more about Modern Baseball, visit their website.
