Music: Square People "I'm Not Lazy" single [Guest Review]

The more a band intently focuses on being interesting, or "something else," the more they lose the plot and sound boring. Square People don't have this problem. Their approach comes off as calculated, but it doesn't belie the basics: good songs.

Standing tall as the town's only sax-clad house-rockers, they deliver the goods for their first two wax tracks. There have been a few tapes before this 45, that consecutively build up to the feat accomplished here with these two songs: "I'm Not Lazy" and "I'm Not Nervous." Honest statements on their ethics, SP are certainly not lazy, they're one of the most productive bands in town.

"I'm Not Lazy," is their most fully realized composition yet. If all of their previously recorded output were a tough nut, this song cracks it. Encapsulating everything about this band, it strikes the delicate, oh-so-satisfying balance between laid back certainty and haywire anxiety, a la XTC's "Drums and Wires."

There are fascinating dynamics, syncopations, and neatly interactive sax and flute passages, and absolutely NO showboating. There is not one superfluous note played here. There are hooks, however dressed up the arrangements are, and if you strip away the execution you have honest-to-goodness pop songs