The Battle Royale – Wake Up, Thunderbabe

Rating: 6/10
Best Tracks: Racecar, Hollercopter, and Notebooks
Worst Track: Wake Me Up
Afternoon Records

What happens when a bunch (of) high school kids get together with a keyboard and indie-rock dreams? Usually they’re humiliated and scoffed at by their peers. However, The Battle Royale, an indie-electro dance band from Minneapolis, rivals the electro hits of Klaxons, the angst of At the Drive-In and the catchiness of Razorlight.

This quartet of angst-driven disco teenagers have created a unique blend of guitar solos, keyboard strokes, voice modifiers, drum machines and lyrics to the limits. Although it may bring up a red flag to those who think multi-layering in bands is a dead art form, The Battle Royale have proven their worth in Wake Up, Thunderbabe.

This album clocks in just under 43 minutes with the longest song at the end at six minutes. Wake Up, Thunderbabe starts off shaky with the nostalgic sound of a skipping vinyl record under lacing a techno guitar, then quickly shifting to stability to let the listener know they mean business. The band’s first single “Racecar” shows how diverse they make their sound, starting with a hollow drum moving into a multi-layered disco beat with crooning male and female vocals swallowing the listener into indie-electro goodness.

The album as a whole has a wide range of sound. While it has its indie-electro beats with “Custom Clothes” and “Notebooks,” the acoustic goodness found in “Confessions Pt. 2,” “Scream Scream” and “Our Thoughts are A-Pourin’” show The Battle Royale’s diverse use of instrumentation and musicality in their sophomore album.

While Wake Up, Thunderbabe lacks some concentration from over-drawn guitar riffs and electronic beats, The Battle Royale have created a solid album mixing the best aspects of music: the good, the bad, and the electronic.

- Ryan Poole