"The 1980s live on Radio Lite 104.1!" And the station will proceed to skim the sonic surface of the Reagan Era, wrapping the lunchbreaks of sedan drivers in a comforting Pier Connection poultice of Human League and "Hungry Like the Wolf". Though there's always the occasional stab into the decade's deeper layers ("Here's a gem from Chris Rea!"), a large chunk of the population's 80s memories would fit on disc one of your average Rhino retrospective. I Am the World Trade Center take a different tack. They're as enamored of the decade as A Flock of Seagulls (who, incidentally, are still touring), but their memories live on in the rhythms of import singles and the tiny circuits of a 21st century hard drive. And if they spend a lot of time reveling, they do try to reinvent, as well.
The Cover Up, I Am the World Trade Center's third album, tends to prefer detached whirs to direct references-- and that detachment drips all over Amy Dykes' every syllable. "If you're looking for a good time/ Call me tonight," she throatily coos in opener "No Expectations". She's the unattainable 80s video vixen, pushing away Peter Godwin every time he gets close enough to smell the Chanel. Behind her, bandmate Dan Gellar's pulsing electro/disco bassline is punctuated with snare triggers and the occasional keyboard tinkle, which lends an authentic feel more akin to those flashy plastic times past than to present-day revivalism. And yet, it's all built with point-and-click Powerbook know-how.
World Trade Center rock this dynamic well throughout The Cover Up, even as their songs eventually begin to blend into a pleasant haze of burbles and Debbie Harry poses. It's essentially a one-trick sound, but here, they do a better job of adapting it to their post-dated needs than they did on previous albums: "Love Tragedy" summarizes the disintegration of Dykes' and Gellar's romance to the cool and twittering underpinnings of Substance-era New Order, while "Follow Me" leaves more space in its arrangement-- with some tweaking, it could be a Trans Am-worthy mainframe freakout. The Cover Up also offers a cover of The Jam's "Going Underground", which nicely breaks up the album's fizzy beats with some electric guitar cranks and warm organ chirping.
Guitars figure into "Different Stories", too-- an elastic wah-wah tone suggestive of early Britpop married to the clicky synth percussion of their beloved bygone era. It's the kind of thing I wish World Trade Center had further experimented with on The Cover Up; employing elements not typically associated with their retro revisitations is a better way to make this sound live in the present. To their credit, the duo do seem to grasp this notion: On the title track, they occasionally drop out the incessant clicky beat, and work in keyboard sounds that, at the very least, weren't included with most ROM packs back in the day. Still, while they could stand an infusion of variety, I Am the World Trade Center's version of nostalgia still sounds fresher today than most of what's endlessly replayed on Nostalgia FM. They're accessing what it sounded like to be cool back then-- not just popular.
