By Matt Murray

Husband-wife duos aren’t exactly a novelty in the world of indie music, but Mates of State did their best to distinguish themselves over the course of their first four full-length releases. However, on their newest album “Re-Arrange Us” they seemed to do just what their album title suggests; and the result wasn’t exactly groundbreaking.

On previous releases, Mates of State seemed to have found some form of balance in writing their cheery songs, yet incorporating enough diversity in their style to allow the album to achieve a certain level of variety over the course of its entirety. In “Re-Arrange Us” this aspect of their writing seemed to be completely lost as the instruments seem to barely vary at all from song to song, not only in their tone, but often times the band hovers around the same general key. This lack of dynamics over the course of the album makes listening to all of the songs consecutively a chore, as the entire CD could literally be one 35-minute song.

Despite the album’s overall lack of interesting melody and its textbook, verse-chorus-verse writing style, the album does host its share of hooks. The duo occasionally writes harmonies that complement each other well, but the hollow and repetitive nature of the lyrics seem to detract from any positive melody that presents itself.

The album only offers three to four songs that are truly worth a listen and all of them are on the front half of the album, making it excessively top-heavy. Download the first five songs off of iTunes if you really feel the need to add this album to your collection. Otherwise delve into the Mates’ past releases or just stay away from this group altogether.