In the wake of Human Television's frenetic, frankly awesome All Songs Written By EP, the shoegazy Look At Who You're Talking To comes across as a crawling letdown. The uncomplicatedly volatile perfection of "Saw You Walking By" has been supplanted by the over-pensive, possibly (hopefully!) ironic opener "I'm Moving On", with its layered guitars and "I'm dying to be near you" sounding eerily like Ian Curtis in a necktie. Makes sense, though: Apparently, "I'm Moving On" predates All Songs Written By and was the Gainesville, Fla., band's first collaboration. Wearing influences plainly on sleeves, the moodiness of "I'm Moving On" resembles models like Black Tambourine and My Bloody Valentine. Thing is, Human Television have always been completely disinterested in breaking new ground, and in their case, it's more a virtue than vice.
Human Television do better when ripping off Sarah Records twee, all heartache and swiftness and music for wimps; they're precious but never mawkish, inoffensively erring on the side of agreeable (that's not a complaint). "Mars Red Rust" harkens back to the force of All Songs Written By, albeit less shambly and less frenzied. The guitars are reminiscent of New Zealand pop-- the Clean or the Chills-- and there are traces of the Field Mice, Rocketship, and more obviously, R.E.M. and the Wedding Present. Most everything's harmless, inadvertently summed up in "Such a Trip": "Did a little damage/ Had a lot of fun/ Whatever". Plainly derivative, the band comes off weirdly refreshing all the same. They're like the sweetest (twee-est?) kind of iced tea on hot days when you're thirsty-- familiar and perfect in the way that new, alien shit like cactus juice or something could never be.
Which isn't to say that Human Television should stick only to pop as jangly and scuffed as custodians' key chains; most of the downtempo stuff surprisingly moves, too. Look at Who You're Talking To is a far cry from the belligerent imperative its title suggests. It is, instead, unhurried and hushed, with lines as unexpectedly touching as "When the full length of my arm is about the same/ As the whole length of your body/ That would go a very long way/ If you're talking to us". Among the jangly, "Inconsistent" is best. Here's the kind of pop song that needs to exist. There are "goofy glasses," the line "you look so soft," and a confession: "So embarrassing/ So utterly disgusting/ That a full-blown man/ Could have no concept of time/ And no sense of direction." If any of this sounds familiar, it's because Human Television's onto something. When they sing, "All you need to know/ Is how much you are like me", that's basically the point.
