Alli with an i
I Learned it by Watching You
Law of Inertia
This album can be summed up fairly easily: early Get Up Kids. I guess you might need to add a twist of some other late 1990s emo-core bands, but the most obvious comparison would be The Get Up Kids’ remarkable first full length, Four Minute Mile (not to mention the two 7”s they released before it). So, I’m guessing that Alli with an i, like the rest of us, must be unhappy with the way that The Get Up Kids have “grown” over the years. I Learned it by Watching You is basically a modern, updated version of Four Minute Mile, with a few of the band’s other influences sprinkled in for good measure.
The vocalist kind of sounds like No Use For a Name’s vocalist – that is, when he isn’t doing the whiney Matt Pryor thing. Also, he often does an impersonation of Samiam’s lead singer, almost to a T! The guitars are much more powerful on this album than were the guitars on Four Minute Mile, which is to be understood, given that Doghouse was a much poorer label than it is today. The drums are quite big here, although Alli with an i’s drummer plays the ride cymbal much more than The Get Up Kids’ drummer. These songs basically follow the same format as the songs found on Four Minute Mile, in other words there are few surprises.
That said, I truly love The Get up Kids’ first few releases, so I was immediately attracted to I Learned it by Watching You. However, after my initial bliss wore off, I found myself angry that these hacks would so blatantly rip off such a wonderful record. Take this Alli with an i record for what it is: 1997 revisited.
Law of Inertia Records: http://www.lawofinertia.com/
