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The 88
Not Only...But Also
Review By Brian Baker
The 88 are living proof of the contemporary adage that television is the new radio. The L.A. band’s first two excellent independent albums — 2003’s Kind of Light, 2005’s Over and Over — were licensed for high profile placement in commercials (Target, Sears, Microsoft) and TV shows (including The OC, Grey’s Anatomy, Weeds and How I Met Your Mother, the latter of which featured the band as guests on one episode), giving them the kind of exposure that radio denied them. For the 88’s major label debut, Not Only...But Also, the band is pared down to frontman Keith Slettedahl, keyboardist Adam Merrin and new drummer Anthony Zimmitti, but it makes a righteous racket that lives up to the standards of the early catalog.
The 88 are a sonic melting pot of clipped British Invasion pop precision, garage rock intensity and soulful Motown joy. With Not Only...But Also, the band expands those influences in every conceivable direction, from the funky swing of “Like You Do” to the Supergrass-meets-Bowie rush of “Sons and Daughters” and the modern Kinks translation of “Love You Anytime.” The 88 even revisits “Coming Home,” one of its more popular tracks from its last album, in a slightly rewritten and repolished but equally satisfying form. If radio embraced the 88 with the same fervor as television and film, Not Only...But Also would be storming up pop charts with swaggering ease.
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