When I first heard that Matt & Kim’s new album, Sidewalks, was coming out, I was more than ready to jump on the bandwagon stuffed full with pixie cut, plaid shirted indie kids. However, I found the electro-pop duo difficult to support, and simply couldn’t bring myself to be an advocate of what was very repetitive, 90’s junk pop.

When the two try to drop the old sound and achieve something newfound, their music ends up sounding like an Atari gone haywire.

The duo did manage to incorporate a more current sound into their music, and it was not all recycled. Matt is able to capture that more modern, overly dramatic whine that today’s music is plagued with. His vocals sound like the product of a tangle of Fall Out Boy and Owl City, over pronouncing his words and singing as if he had two fingers stuck up his nose.

The track that tries to break out of the simplistic melodies and lyrical arrangements that the rest of the album get stuck in is “Cameras.” For the first 30 seconds or so, the song achieves what Matt and Kim have the potential to be. It is still pop, extremely light hearted and fun. However, its melody is something unique to the rest of the album. They leave behind the synthesizers, break out some trumpets, a xylophone and punchy drums beats. The song is the embodiment of what Matt & Kim ought to be, and have the potential to be as they mature as a band.