Holy shit folks it's dance fever sweeping the country? Once again the eccentric Marc Kluepfel and his Action Action ensemble return to remake the 80's with even more obnoxious sounding synth slams and more nasal crooning than ever before. But where there was a harsh blast of grainy shit on Don't Cut Your Fabric (the last album) there is now a soothing hum or blip. Yes it seems that I can go full-on Hubbard-style and scream, "sophomore slump in full effect!" An Army of Shapes Between Wars is the new big-time album that we all knew would sound like this. Produced by William Wittman, the same guy who's responsible for Cyndi Lauper's overly pop filled exuberance of yesteryear. This pop overload has now transferred to AA even more popularity and even a MTV video that I hear is getting plenty of kiddie attention. The video and single hypes the song "The Game" and trust me when I say one listen is all you need to realize the Weezerish (bite my lip) pop sensibilities. The "just so" sing-alongs, slow strumming and kooky innocent attitude of this song has washed the band onto the shores of the mainstream.

Even though this album seems to encompass what AA is trying to accomplish, you can't help but wonder, "isn't danceable rock music going to take a shit into novelty status any time soon?" Well, I guess not. People love to dance. Although the slow waltzing nuances in "What Temperature Does Water Freeze At" would most likely set off the alarm for a nap emergency, instead of shaking your ass with all your hipster friends drinking Red Bulls at the club. On "120 Ways To Kill You" AA took the new wave aesthetic idea and completely ran with it to create a ballad that Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall could both find comfort in. One thing is for sure with AA is their style, no matter how trite this type of music is getting, these guys continue to keep it original sounding rather than style-bitten. I know I sounded negative at the beginning, and I kind of was, but more and better production handling has definitely reshaped this band. Is it good? Is it bad? Does it make me sad? Is it the same thing that is happening to every other young band these days? Yes. From what I've gathered is that the last album was 90 percent of the iceberg. Don't Cut Your Fabric was concerned with getting all the rawness and bullshit out of their systems in preparation for the other missing ten percent of the iceberg, this album. That means that Army of Shapes (from the band's point of view) is better than the last. What does this all mean for Action Action? Expect Cribs episodes and TRL appearances to follow.