Released May 12th, 2008
In 2005 I was just out of high school and working on getting into college while working at a restaurant in Logan, Utah. Up there I had a few goals that I deperately wanted to get done and one of them was to see my big four bands at the time - Thrice, Thursday, Brand New, and Taking Back Sunday. TBS was coming through on tour with Jimmy Eat World and Mates of State, an unknown band to me, so my sister and I with a group of our friend drove the three hours to the E Center in SLC. We got in and walked into Mates of State's set. It was a grinding set of organ and drums with doo-wap vocals, it was grinding because of the venue, and we did not like them at all, but I kept them in my maybe file for a long time.
That was a good move. 2008's Re-Arrange Us is one of the best albums I have listened to in awhile. While some girl/guy swap vocal groups can be a bit too saccherin for my tastes, this was a perfect blend and the lyrics definately lend themselves to the intelligence level of the audience and to the artists, they do not sugar coat the content and in this type of music that is refreshing. The music is big and beat driven with "You are free" and "The Rearranger" being the best examples of this. When I have some time free I am going to try and bury myself in their back catalouge. Also this album lends itself to a remix more than any indie album I have ever heard and they ended up doing this already, to my surprise, with 2009's Re-Arranged: The Remixes Vol.1. Check out both albums if you want something that is both a driving album and a headphones album.
Rating - 4 out of 5
Best Track - "You Are Free"
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