Matt & KimIt should go without saying that unless you are The Clash, you should never open your album with a track that outshines the rest of the songs. Too often, musicians put everything out there all at once in the form of a single: the catchiest song, the defining song, the best song. All in one neat little bow.

Take Peter, Bjorn and John. The band penned “Young Folks”, undoubtedly one of the hottest whistle-chorus songs since Gene Kelly. They slot it in as the first song of their debut album, “Writer’s Block” – a promising start. Yet the rest of the album is completely useless. Boring, ambling, flat pop. They blew their premature load all over the place, and never recovered.(Their sophomore album was released in April and committed the same offence. “Lay It Down,” though appearing later in the track list, is an adorable and danceable hit. Every other song, however, is filler.)

Now, as annoying as this is, I too am guilty of perpetuating the curse. It’s so easy to fall in love with one song and never give the rest of the album a second thought. Especially when it’s the first song you hear. For example, I recently fell head over heels for “Daylight” by Matt & Kim. I made the world very aware of my infatuation, playing it for everyone I knew, Facebook status-ing the shit out of it, and listening to it on my own at least four times in one sitting, four times a day.

The song never got old – it still hasn’t, almost three months after my initial discovery – but I began to get curious. Did Matt & Kim have the clout to follow up a track that had completely turned my world upside down, and incidentally the world of all my friends? Was “Daylight” just a lucky break, or was there more to their drum-synth duo?

The suspense was building, and I couldn’t resist. I paused “Daylight” for the first time in weeks. Breathing deeply, I eased into the next song, “Cutdown”. The same sparse yet integral drumming, the same wavering, frenzied vocals, the same ethereal synth undertones. But with a different formula.

It was a miracle! The curse had been broken! This song, though perhaps not everything “Daylight” was to me at the time, was good. Very good. I listened on with glee to the heavier beat of “Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare,” the very eighties “Don’t Slow Down”, and my new obsession, “I’ll Take Us Home.” Matt & Kim even had the good sense to include an extro remix of “Daylight”, as a sort of congratulations for making it through the nine other songs on Grand.

It became official: “Grand” is an entire album of jangly, hand-clapping, feedbacking tastiness. It has all the hook of MGMT with a more coherent, accessible sound. It has an opening track that knocks your socks off, and then threatens to rip your feet apart with every track that follows. And it is a debut album, no less.

Perhaps I will be one of the few to stop and appreciate the full effect of Grand and perhaps “Daylight” will indeed be all that ever reaches mainstream ears. But Matt & Kim have at least reassured me that there is an exception to every rule, and it doesn’t always have to involve Joe Strummer.






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