The Districts – Popular Manipulations

Another torrent in the present downpour of angsty guitar rock, The Districts' second album is further proof that whoever said things would get better after your teens was a bald-faced liar. But while their contemporaries continue to channel the intricate guitar tapestries of late 90’s emo, The Districts sound more like a mainstage festival act from the mid-2000s, possessing a widescreen theatricality that recalls bands like The Editors or The Killers circa Sam’s Town.

Bandleader Robert Grote yells with a whole lot of heart throughout Popular Manipulations but often struggles to translate that passion into meaningful lyrics. His downtrodden dispatches are frequently mired in clumsy metaphors ('I’d let you fall down in a garden full of bees') and empty cliches ('the point is beside the point now'), perhaps indicative of mismatch between the band's anthemic ambitions and their desire to probe intimate, personal experiences. Similarly, the pounding drums and overblown Pinkerton-esque guitars gesture at raw emotionality, but neither quite build to kind of catharsis this kind of music thrives on.

And yet, Grote occasionally slips in flashes of devastating honesty ('Mother I’m stoned, calling you on the phone' comes to mind) and you find yourself rooting for The Districts anyway.