Walk It Off

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Walk It Off

Studio album by Tapes 'n Tapes

Released

April 2, 2008

Recorded

Tarbox Road Studios in New York

Genre

Indie rock

Length

44:06

Label

XL Recordings

Producer

Dave Fridmann

Professional reviews

Tapes 'n Tapes chronology

The Loon
(2005)

Walk It Off
(2008)

Walk It Off is the second album from the Minneapolis-based band Tapes 'n Tapes, released on 2 April 2008.

While their previous album, The Loon, was produced by the band's bassist and producer, Eric Applewick, and was recorded in a friend's unfinished basement studio, Walk It Off was recorded by producer, David Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studio in Cassadaga, New York.^[1] The album has 12 tracks, although it was originally planned to have fifteen.^[2] The first single released for the album was "Hang Them All".^[3]

The critical reception to the album was generally favourable, scoring a rating of 61% from MetaCritic.^[4]

1 History
2 Recording
3 Lyrics
4 Album title
5 Critical reception
6 Track listing
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

In March 2007, Josh Grier said that, a variety of new untitled songs had been written after an extensive bout of touring that began in January 2007.^[5] Grier also said the band would wait until their April tour before playing any new material, "to make sure...the lyrics were written" so the songs wouldn't sound like "just [mumbled] words."^[6] The band announced on October 25, 2007, that recording for Walk It Off was finished.

Grier spoke for the band, commenting on the style of the new tracks, saying: "I think we always try to have each song be its own personality and its own sound so I'm sure there will be some stuff on there that doesn't have the same type of songs that we played before...That's what we always go for, to try out new stuff, so I think it'll sound like us. It's pretty much the same group of guys but I'm sure there's going to be, at least for us, a songwriting growth."^[6]

[edit] Recording

Josh Grier stated that "having a budget was awesome" as it allowed them "to have a real studio" where the band could "get the sounds [they] wanted."^[5] He also said: "I want it to sound how it's going to sound when we play it live."^[3] The band tried to focus on creating music where the songs sounded like the band "playing songs and not some crazy orchestration".^[3] Grier said, "We wanted to make a rock record, but there weren't any over-indulgences. There's no orchestral arrangements or anything," but "one thing we wanted to do this time was get real drum sounds...Last time it was recorded in a place that had six-feet ceilings."^[5]

Grier stated that some of writing for the album took place "over the last month or two before going into the studio". The recording process would generally entail Grier writing the song, adding "all the music" and then the band would meet up and practice together to "figure out everybody's part". Grier said the last part of the process would be to add the vocals of which he would "make words kind of to match the sounds" and finally make additions and amendments to the vocals or writing whilst the band were in the studio.^[1]

Grier said of the recording process that, "It's cool to be able to be at a studio where you're living there and work on stuff all day and mess around with it and work on stuff all night if you want to. But after the first couple weeks of doing it, I was definitely ready to be done in the studio for a little bit. I was like, 'How many more times can we go through these songs and mess around with stuff?'"^[1]

[edit] Lyrics

The album's lyrics will be different from previous songs, as the band wanted to "try some different things out" and "not do the same thing all over again."^[3] Grier voiced that the songs were written to have "ambiguous" meanings and stated that the lyrics were intended to let the listener "interpret it for their own."^[3] In addition, Grier said that there were some songs that he "spent a little bit more time on" and that he was "definitely happy with how everything turned out."^[3]

[edit] Album title

Grier said the title of the album was suggested by drummer, Jeremy Hanson:

"We were throwing around titles, and he was like 'I've always liked the sound of the title Walk It Off.' And we were like 'oh, that sounds cool.' At that point we had thrown around a lot of stuff and nothing had really passed it, so it was like 'all right, let's go with that.' It could be so many different things, and taken so many different ways, and then we realized like three weeks later that there's a lyric in the second-to-last song, "Lines", where we actually say "walk it off." And then we were like 'oh, it's perfect!' "^[3]

[edit] Critical reception

The album had mixed reviews but the critical reception to the album was generally favourable. Based on 21 reviews, review aggregate website MetaCritic reported a rating of 61%.^[4]

AMG discussed the pairing of Dave Fridmann with Tapes 'n Tapes, and said that, "while teaming a quintessential indie rock producer like him with a band of indie rock classicists like Tapes 'n Tapes might seem like a good idea on paper, it doesn't quite work".^[7]

Many reviewers compared Walk It Off to the band's debut album, The Loon. Some reviewers said that Walk It Off was a poor follow-up, and said it differed to The Loon; "It's difficult to believe that Walk It Off is by the same band who released the innovative, abstract, and gritty debut album, The Loon".^[8] Another said, "Nothing makes as much of a visceral impact here as songs like "Insistor" did on The Loon [...] often, it feels like there's fog or a glass wall between the music and listeners' ears".^[7]

But other reviewers felt that the album followed in a similar vein to their debut. Billboard said; "[The Loon] was characterized by fuzzy vintage cool, and it's followed here with a much more frustrated version of the same",^[9] whilst others said that Walk It Off was different to their debut but that the change in sound was positive; "It doesn't match its predecessor but it's a banquet of sound well worth feasting on."^[10]