The first Imperial Teen album in years opens with: "I just wanna get you in the bed." That's the sort of lyric that makes my hand want to reach for the "off" button. Luckily, "Overdrive" has a propulsive hook and so I kept with it despite those jokey, seemingly tongue-in-cheek lyrics. I'm just not a fan of "Oh look at how quirky/funny we are!"-style bands, and parts of this Imperial Teen effort kept pushing my buttons, as the saying goes.
All Over You, out on Merge Records this week, is the first Imperial Teen record since 2019 but I can't say I missed these folks. I saw them live on a bill at the (new) 9:30 Club in D.C. in 1999 sandwiched between Owsley (great) and Fountains of Wayne (of course great). Imperial Teen went down like a chore I had to get over with and, frankly, they still sort of have the same effect on me. Featuring members of Faith No More, Sister Double Happiness, and Hey Willpower, the band makes hooks here which are not bad, honestly. "Hands All Up" has a really wicked rhythmic riff keeping it moving forward. However, my big problem with this band remains the vocals. No matter who in the band is singing, the vocals -- sometimes -- have a smarmy vibe to them which is really distracting.
The title cut manages to rip off the hook from "Electric Blue" from Icehouse (of all things), plus a few bits of Weezer (a band I dislike intensely on both musical and lyrical grounds). Without vocals, this song wouldn't be so bad though. At least "A Single Chair" has a cool New Wave groove to it, one which recalls both Gary Numan and The Cars (a bit). Like I said, the vocals are the problem here on some selections, not the music so much. A highlight of this 2026 album is "Get You Home", a down-tempo composition with great production values. Similarly, "Have a Shout" is another fine one, and one in which it doesn't sound like Imperial Teen are trying so damn hard to please. Hence, the groove feels like a natural one, and the supple hooks support vocals which are more modest in approach. This is proof that when the vocal delivery in an Imperial Teen song stops sounding so forced, the song is a lot better for it. I just wish there was more like this on All Over You. If you can ignore the tracks where it seems like the band are trying so hard to perpetuate a kind of cute indie and all that, the songs are okay, especially on the second half of the record.
All Over You by Imperial Teen is out on Friday from Merge Records.
[Photo: Milan Zrnic]