Almost immediately after
Unrest
called it a day following 1993's
Perfect Teeth
,
Bridget Cross
and
Mark Robinson
began working on songs for their next band. Given how soon
Air Miami
started in the wake of
's breakup, it's not surprising that, on the surface,
Me, Me, Me
isn't radically different from the work of
Robinson
Cross
' previous band. On songs like the snappy "Neely," the bubblegummy "ba-ba-ba" backing vocals, and the double-time strumming feel like a logical extension of
's tightly wound pop. However,
's lone full-length occupies a special and distinct space of its own. The duo described the project as "Mark and Bridget" as opposed to
's focus on
, and their guitars twine and chime together on moments such as the album's closing interlude "Reprise."
' greater presence leads to some of
's brightest highlights, with "Seabird"'s balmy drift and "Afternoon Train"'s jazzy coolness reflecting the sunny and shadowy sides of her songwriting. Just as importantly,
opened up
's creative process to an outside producer -- namely,
Laika
's
Guy Fixsen
-- something they never did with
.
Fixsen
's post-rock meets avant-pop sensibilities meshed so well with the duo's ideas that experimentation ran wild. As a result, no two songs on
sound all that much alike, as hinted at by the one-two punch of "I Hate Milk"'s jagged riffs and the
New Order
-ish shimmying guitars and high-pitched bass on "World Cup Fever." Elsewhere,
expand on
's experiments:
' "Event Horizon" pairs a
Soft Cell
beat with radiant girl group choruses, and the sparkling electronic snippet "Sweet as a Candy Bar" bears a kinship with
Stereolab
as well as
. Even with their allusions to post-rock and electronic music,
was still a left-of-center pop act at heart.
delivers plenty of hooky, sun-streaked escapism with songs like "Definitely Beachy," where the distortion-laden guitars are equal parts sugar and sand. At its best, the album sounds like daydreams of pop songs. All breathy harmonies and galloping drums, "Special Angel" is an indie pop gem that, along with the strutting "Dolphin Expressway," summon a bliss that
seemed to tap into effortlessly. Despite their abundance of catchy creativity,
feels like something of an outlier within the world of '90s indie. This may be because they were gone so quickly; the journey from their self-released demo tapes to disbanding only took a couple of years. Nevertheless,
boasts some of the most appealing songs
created with any of their projects. ~ Heather Phares