Record review: Unicycle Loves You - 'Failure'

By Frank Krolicki

The cover of Unicycle Loves You's third album boldly reads Failure, accompanied by an image of a woman's bottom half sprawled over a sewer to drive the less-than-optimistic message home. It's a simple title that's capable of stirring an immediate emotional response: isn't there a part inside all of us that's petrified by the ever-present threat of failing at life and winding up somewhere lying over the proverbial (or maybe literal) sewer? The concept of the Chicago's trio's latest collection of songs might focus on this universal, anxiety-inducing theme, but the execution doesn't follow suit. Failure is a huge success.

If you've heard ULY's 2010 album Mirror, Mirror, you'll notice right away that Failure is quite a different experience. It's bolder, louder and despite its underlying sense of discontent, more accessible. Where the last release sometimes meandered, this one gets right to the point. For every hook that wasn't pronounced enough before, there's two waiting to pounce and grab you by both ears now. Opener "Garbage Dump," a sort of folk singalong at its essence that's done up as a noisy rocker, is the most immediate example; I'd dare anyone to resist singing along with vocalist/guitarist Jim Carroll to the track's "woo-ooh-ooh-woo-ooh-oohs."