Try as you might (and I doubt that you would have a reason to ever do so), you just can’t dislike Cuddly Shark. Unlike so many of their tediously self-important contemporaries, Cuddly Shark are a fun band that positively revels in short sharp angular songs that make so little sense in the analysis that you have to wonder how they get away with it.
You can hear all sort of post punk echoes resonating through these songs and like the hostage takers that they are, Cuddly Shark have a gun held at pretension’s head. Joyously, they repeatedly pull the trigger and the bullets that are “Overpriced” and “Broken Arm” soon spread the beard scratcher’s brain cells all over the wallpaper.
The rivers of blood are soon flowing as a reload with the offbeat and the laconic trims “My iPad Made Me Do IT” of its urban angst and turns it into a top ten hit for all the serial killers out there. Oddly enough, Cuddly Shark follow that one up with a song called “Trigger Happy”. I knew we were on the same wavelength.
Anyway, the point is this. The whole point of being smart is being able to disguise how smart you actually are. Cuddly Shark are a smart band. They don’t seem to be doing anything particularly clever but they nonetheless have made an album that you have to stand back and admire. I would give them a round of applause if I was actually smart enough to understand that.