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Simplifying things is fine, of course, and Bishop Allen does quite a bit with a little on Grrr..., but there are small moments when it feels like the band is putting a glass ceiling on these songs.
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It's hard to criticize an album that feels so good-natured, especially when unoriginality is hardly a mark against this kind of pop, but the band misses again with its lyrics, which, while generally clever, often stray into the realm of overstructured precocity.
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Twee without being cloying, Bishop Allen have dropped any signifiers that might make us think Tilly & the Wall (the clattering percussion, and urgent male/female vocals), and manage to present their light-hearted lyrics as sincere.
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aside from the nicely scuffed 'Dirt on Your New Shoes,' a general lack of spark or lyrical acuity makes even the album's catchiest songs of predestination ('The Ancient Commonsense of Things'), passive-aggression ('Don't Hide Away'), and whimsy ('Cue the Elephants') register as little more than charming diversions.
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Songwriters Justin Rice and Christian Rudder are fluent melodists, but the hooks can't redeem a peppy preciousness that veers into indie self-parody--the sound of post-collegiates far too convinced that they're clever and quirky.
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The album is not an abject failure however, as there are bits, just tiny bits, of it that give off the faintest wisps of something more.