I Blame Society

It's nearly impossible to discuss Brooklyn indie pop trio Ballet's third long-player, I Blame Society, without invoking names like Hidden Cameras, Belle & Sebastian, Jens Lekman, and, most importantly, Magnetic Fields. Though they may not be as steeped in the subversive, nursery rhyme witticisms of Stephin Merritt, songs like "Cruel Path," "Difficult Situations," and "All the Way" manage to convey a sort of wounded optimism that, when paired with the simple, Brill Building-inspired electro-pop melodies, makes them feel like kissing cousins to some of Merritt's best offerings. That said, there's more at work here than just an addendum to 69 Love Songs, as the Ballet possess a certain streetwise panache, especially on moodier cuts like "Alright" and "Meaningless," which examine the raw succinctness of love and heartache through the murky prisms of Joy Division and "Sweet Jane"-era Velvet Underground. It's a subtle record that gets under your skin not because it's full of creepy-crawlies, but because it feels intimate in the same way that watching a John Hughes movie makes you feel like your watching your own friends. In fact, the excellent "Feelings," with its simple, questioning refrain of "I still have feelings for you," sounds tailor-made for the credits sequence of an alternate universe Hughes mash-up that sees Pretty in Pink's Ducky jumping into Sixteen Candles hunk Jake Ryan's car, as Molly Ringwald blows kisses to them both with her arms around a triumphant Anthony Michael Hall. ~ James Christopher Monger