Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Living With the Living

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Living With the Living
Touch & Go: 3/20/2007

I used to think I hated American music, or most of it anyway. I developed a snobbery about music in my teen years as a result of my exposure to the Gothic/industrial scene, which prized obscurity over quality. I was convinced that music had to be weird to be good, and that very little good music was being made in the States. While it is true that most American music is made for the lowest common denominator, I naively ignored the possibility that just beneath the surface of MTV- and radio-friendly AOR was a wealth of great and inventive music.

Sadly, I didn't begin to shed these prejudices until 2003, when I started attending a major university. Significantly older than my peers, I felt like a fish out of water. I heard chatter about bands I had never heard of, that didn't receive the media overexposure that had turned me off of American music ten years previous. Gradually, I began opening my mind and I was impressed by much of what I heard.

Though I had heard of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists four years ago, it wasn't until Living With the Living came out that I got around to listening to them. I think if I'd heard this album at the age of 16, I would have dismissed it without giving it a chance. Now at the age of 30, I have enough humility to give almost anything an opportunity to impress me, which Living With the Living has. On the surface, it seems pretty conventional. But Leo's an extraordinary songwriter. His songs are energetic, aggressive, anthemic, nostalgic, and all sorts of other adjectives I can't think of at the moment. Every time I listen to it, this album reveals new facets that I hadn't heard before. I am not exaggerating when I say that I relish every single second of it. Living With the Living now represents what I have come to love about the finest American music.