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Kids Aflame is the good stuff, as loosely played as it is meticulously plotted.
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As Arms, Goldstein has produced perhaps one of the best debuts of 2008, Kids Aflame is a sparkling little lo-fi gem.
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You won’t get the same thing twice on Kids Aflame, and Goldstein keeps the surprises coming with subtle changes to his vocals, adding layers of horns in unexpected places and by simply choosing not to be safe.
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Goldstein's voice could use a little shaking up. Even in the first-person stories Goldstein feels like an observer, albeit one with a negative bias. Still, ARMS makes for an interesting contrast to Harlem Shakes' eternal optimism.
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The loud, distorted, lo-fi West Coast tone dominates the album, and this is the terrority where Goldstein performs most engagingly. Where he attempts a more stripped-down approach (on Fall, or the ukelele-led title track) the results are less successful.
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Under The RadarHome-recorded music is seldom this revelatory, but these tunes manage to leap from the confines of their origins. [Holiday 2009, p.78]