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We are Reptar, and we are quirky! That’s the message the members of Athens, GA-based indie-pop group Reptar clearly intend to convey on their debut album, Body Faucet, and it’s a message they repeat over and over and over and over again, to the point at which quirkiness is not a virtue, but a vice in the ears of the listener.
It’s a damn shame, too, because the album is chock full of clever arrangements and tight instrumentation. Unfortunately, these numerous high points often find themselves drowning in the Faucet‘s seemingly endless stream of vocal immaturity and hyper-stylization.
Most of the blame lies with Reptar’s lead singer, Graham Ulicny, whose vocal delivery is so gaudy and over-stylized that he makes David Byrne sound calm and restrained in comparison. It is Ulicny’s vocals, more than anything else, that overshadow the solid instrumental arrangements prevalent throughout the record and mutate Body Faucet from an enjoyable, head-bobbing listen into one that just never seems to end (the record’s 57-minute run time doesn’t exactly help, either).
It’s not wholly uncommon to see a band with a unique (or arguably, bad) lead singer garner some popularity and, sometimes, even fame. The Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, The Epilogues and Sigur RCB3s are just a few of the many groups who have succeeded, or continue to succeed, in spite (or maybe because) of a somewhat unconventional-sounding lead vocalist. These groups are mature enough to know that the singer shouldn’t overshadow the rest of the music, but rather, complement it. In the case of Reptar, Ulicny seems to treat his band’s arrangements as a canvas upon which he can vomit all sorts of multicolored, vocal nonsense.
Sonically, Ulicny is a bit like if you threw Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden, along with a healthy dose of speed, into a blender. Ulicny wields quite an impressive range and frenetically contorts and twists his vocals up and down the scale in a manner that clearly requires a certain amount of control. And the use of such deranged energy isn’t always a bad thing – the chorus of “Natural Bridges” is remarkably well-suited for this kind of vocal manipulation, and “Orifice Origami” showcases Ulicny sounding surprisingly and effectively fierce.
Likewise, the instrumental tracks are generally fantastic on Body Faucet. While primarily a guitar band, Reptar throws in enough clever flourishes, such as the pounding African drums on opener “Sebastian” and some fantastic horn arrangements on “Please Don’t Kill Me” to keep things interesting throughout. “Isoprene Bath” is by far the best track on the record, a dramatic union of guitar, marimba, steel drum, synth and vocals that all play off of one another with some truly beautiful results.
The problem is, for every moment where Reptar’s music and vocals all come together, there are 10 in which Ulicny’s voice completely derails the underlying song.
Ulicny’s babyish vocal delivery during the chorus of “Please Don’t Kill Me” will make you want to kill something, and his strange, accented growl during the breakdown of “Natural Bridge” completely distracts the listener from what is an otherwise solid pop song. Oddly enough, later on in that same track, you’ll hear Ulicny sounding strangely self-aware, stating plainly: “I feel so f–king weird when I go to bed at night.” There’s a reason for that, Graham.
Moreover, the perplexing chant of “Human!” at the end of “Houseboat Babies” is an artistic choice as incomprehensible as it is bad, and is a strong contender for the dubious honor of “Most Irritating Sequence in Recent Musical History (and that’s including Nicki Minaj’s “Stupid Hoe”).
When the tempo drops midway through the album on “Ghost Bike,” Ulicny is forced to stand alone without the aid of Reptar’s usual instrumental energy, and the results are so awful that you feel pity for the sound engineer who had to put this whole mix together.
Reptar intends to make a bold, colorful statement with its debut, but unfortunately, the group’s singer tries so hard to avoid being just another blade of grass that he becomes a weed you’ll want to rip out by the roots. Undoubtedly, your experience with this band will largely be determined by how much artistic flexibility you’re willing to offer Ulicny. If you’re a fan of unhinged vocalists, and you’re able to look past or embrace Ulicny’s crazed performance style, you’ll find there’s a lot to enjoy in this release – the hooks are many and the instrumentals tight and bouncy. If you tend to prefer more conventional vocalists, however, you’d do well to steer clear of this album if you want your sanity to remain intact.
You can listen to a stream of Reptar’s Body Faucet for free on the group’s Facebook page, located at http://www.facebook.com/reptarmusic.
