The Breakup Society

Last time out, Spin magazine said James at 35 was "so real" you could "smell the rec room paneling," while Harp praised The Breakup Society's first Get Hip release as "a modern-day breakup/kiss-off classic in every sense of the term," arriving at "a thematically serendipitous spot halfway between Elvis Costello's This Year's Model and the dB's Stand For deciBels."But where that album’s concept demanded a narrowly focused collection of power-pop anthems with several songs strung together as over-caffeinated suites, when it came time to work on the follow-up, Nobody Likes A Winner, a plan was hatched to shake things up a bit without abandoning the power-pop appeal of James completely.Hence the chamber strings on two tracks, Mariachi trumpet on “Forget The Past,” the over-the-top Wall of Echo engulfing the Orbison-esque “This Little Tragedy,” the Clash-like delay on the rhythm guitar riff in “The World Will Change Our Love” and best of all, the understated majesty of the album’s most studio-centric departure, the oddly Beatlesque “How Failure Saved Me From Myself.”There’s no shortage of rockers either. “13th Angry Man,” the title track and “No One Wants To Be Remembered…” stake their claim as recklessly as anything on that first record, while “The World Will Change Our Love” is easily the most contagious imitation of the Troggs. While this one may be less conceptual than James, there is a unifying theme, of sorts, connecting any number of the album’s most inspired cuts, from that bit in the opening title track about “Nobody wants the most popular kid in class to go too far” through the plainly twisted reassurance of “How Failure Saved Me From Myself” to “By A Thread,” in which an old man checks the papers every day in the hopes that the bullies who made his childhood such a living hell back in the ‘60s have finally died.Recorded, like the first one, in the desert heat of Mesa, Arizona, with Bob Hoag outdoing himself on production, The Breakup Society’s second album also features guest appearances by two of rock’s most underrated heroes -- Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5 and R.E.M. fame (singing lead on “By A Thread” and adding keys, guitar and harmonies to several cuts) and Ward Dotson of Pontiac Brothers/Liquor Giants/Gun Club fame on harmonies.The critics have responded thusly: ALL MUSIC GUIDE – FOUR AND A HALF STARS “Considering that his earlier band the Frampton Brothers released an album called File Under F for Failure, Ed Masley has become something of a self-taught authority on the subject of things not working out, and he has plenty more to say regarding his favorite theme on Nobody Likes a Winner, the second album from his most recent project, the Breakup Society. Masley's keen wit and rollicking loud pop hooks have buffered the sharper edges of his angst in the past, but Nobody Likes a Winner is easily his most mature and ambitious album to date, and while Masley hasn't lost his sense of humor, the songs on this album cut a bit deeper into the nature of disappointment than he's been willing to go in the past, as well as venturing into musical territory he hasn't explored before. There's plenty of straight-ahead rock & roll on Nobody Likes a Winner -- cue up "The 13th Angry Man," "Another Candlelit Night," and the title tune -- but Masley and producer Bob Hoag take some detours into British Invasion-style pop ("By a Thread," featuring guest vocals from Scott McCaughey), slow and dreamlike mood pieces ("This Doesn't Matter" and "This Little Tragedy"), and at least one tune that's a dead ringer for the Face to Face-era Kinks ("Lower Expectations"), not to mention two songs that feature actual horns and strings. Masley aims higher with Nobody Likes a Winner than before, but he does so without a drop of pretension, and the regular-guy vibe that's always permeated his work makes the aging sad sack of "Lowered Expectations," the disillusioned lovers of "How Failure Saved Me from Myself" and "This Doesn't Matter," and the conscience-stricken protagonists of "No One Wants to Be Remembered" and "By a Thread" all the easier to relate to, and poignant without sinking into sentimental treacle. Maybe nobody likes a winner, but on this album Masley's losers are people with stories worth hearing set to music that's both smart and bracing, and this represents a new high-water mark for one of the unsung heroes of contemporary rock songwriting.ALTERNATIVE PRESS – FOUR STARS. Expanding on their titular thesis, The Breakup Society continue to explore heartbreak and disappointment on the follow-up to James At 35, but with a twist. Where singer/guitarist (and AP scribe) Ed Masley's post-Frampton Brothers 2004 debut delivered a power-pop concept album about lovelorn adults mired in emotional post-adolescence, Nobody Likes A Winner is more of an attitudinal piece. Not strictly yoked to a narrative arc or power-pop sound, Masley toys with countrypolitan on the reverb-soaked "This Little Tragedy" and Beatles-tinged baroque pop on "How Failure Save Me From Myself." The latter is a centerpiece both sonically and emotionally, weaving the theme of self-delusion and self-sabotage into 14 tracks still chiefly concerned with relational dysfunction. Masley's wit scores with the wonderfully delivered epigram on "Strictly Biological Heart" and "By A Thread," which profiles a bitter obituary watcher. Still, their money-maker remains jangling pop/new wave like "I Didn't Mean To Wreck Your Day," a track buoyed by an undertone of '50s-rock innocenceHARP Ed Masley, the voice of the Breakup Society, has struck a balance between cynicism and humorous wiseguy. His lyrics involve folks who battle the world at every step (“13th Angry Man”), feel better when settling for mediocrity (“Lower Expectations”) and believe you-and-me-against-the-world is a losing battle (“The World Will Change Our Love”). “How Failure Saved Me from Myself” has the self-deprecating outlook and keyboard driven hook that Quasi’s Sam Coomes would die for. While their debut album featured Masley with his former Frampton Brothers bandmates, the Pittsburgh guitarist (now living in Phoenix) has a new, crack lineup of Steel City players. With guest appearances by Scott McCaughey and Ward Dotson, and walls of keyboards from producer Bob Hoag that embellish the hooks, the Breakup Society’s sophomore release doesn’t merely emulate classic power pop—it writes the next chapter for the canon.TROUSER PRESS Taking an unspoken cue from Bob Dylan ("...cares not to come up any higher / But rather get you down in the hole / That he's in"), Masley levels the playing field on Nobody Likes a Winner, an ode to the idea that if he can't be happy or successful, then why should any one else entertain such absurd ambitions? A glorious hail of conviction, wit and energy, the album acknowledges futility on all fronts ("The World Will Change Our Love," "Lower Expectations," "How Failure Saved Me From Myself") but doesn't take a solo fall this time. The title song is absolutely delicious, warning against the ambition and success that leaves people behind ("You never shoulda gotten so much better than the way you were"). "I Didn't Mean to Wreck Your Day" likewise shares the blame, "This Little Tragedy" actually shrinks, rather than magnifies, a problem. Throughout, the quartet plays with loose-limbed but road-tightened precision, ably documented by producer/multi-instrumentalist Bob Hoag. Scott McCaughey is on hand again (he sings lead on "By a Thread"), and Ward Dotson of the Pontiac Brothers adds background vocals as well. Not to jinx it or anything, but Nobody Likes a Winner is one. Highly recommended to fans of the now-defunct Bigger Lovers.MAGNET Ed Masley pens songs akin to those of kindred spirit Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5). Both offer plenty of I'm-a-loser-but-hey-so-are-you tales, spiking any self-flagellation with plenty of insight into everyone else's pathetic human condition. Fittingly, McCaughey contributes lead vocals to the jangly "By A Thread" here, and it's a compliment to Masley that the tune would fit perfectly on a YFF or Minus 5 effort. On the sophomore Breakup Society LP, Masley's tough-and-tender tunes also bring to mind the storytelling of Fountains of Wayne: "When she was young, he used to bring her flowers," sings Masley on "13th Angry Man." (His somewhat thin voice resembles FOW's Chris Collingwood). Most material here, though, is usually delivered with a rougher, YFF-y power-pop attack. Masley scores, too, with slower fare such as "This Little Tragedy," a biting rebuke of someone who needs to get over himself, couched in a soft, gorgeous melody. If it's true that nobody likes a winner, this album is definitely in trouble sale-wise. But Masley probably knew that going in.TUCSON WEEKLY Nobody Likes a Winner is awesome. It's near-perfect power-pop -- catchy as hell but not cloying, with lyrics that are clever but not showoff clever -- the sort for which I am a complete sucker. It's basically the variety of bubblegum pop that was all over the radio in the '70s, but played with louder-than-bubblegum guitars; and almost every song is about one of two things: love or revenge. If you've ever wondered why we haven't heard anything from Redd Kross for a while or lamented the fact that you were born too late to see Big Star in their prime, do yourself a favor, and go check these guys out this weekend.PHOENIX NEW TIMES ScrumtrulescentPITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE Elvis Costello aside, Ed Masley is the best songwriter in power-popPITTSBURGH CITY PAPER As always, Breakup Society main man Ed Masley sings with a vulnerability that makes all the losers of his songs somehow loveable, and the triumphant wounded…. What seems to fuel the album is the tension between the apathy and retreat of many of the songs, and the perfection and power of the music. Masley knows all the tricks in the power-pop bag, and on this outing, arrangement touches such as trumpet, piano and studio effects add shine to the underpinning guitar-bass-drums.LMNOP Pop music just doesn’t get much catchier than this.