
The world loves a self-made millionaire. Observers of the music industry share in this fascination. The history of pop music is filled to the brim with characters who, using only their imagination and daringness, crafted tremendous careers for themselves.
The world sure wants creative mavericks. The only trouble is that these original thinkers are hard to come by, given just how much control the industry wants to hold over its artists. When a pop star is told who to see, what to do and, eventually, what to write, you can’t expect that they’d be left with many trailblazing ideas.
Subway Rat does it all his way. The songwriter does mostly everything by himself. And, until now, he has not had to answer to anyone. The one compass that he uses on his sophomore album, “Captain of the Football Team,” is his instincts.

Throwing away the rule book has the potential to lead to finding uncharted territory. The album opener, “Outta Town”, echoes bittersweet memories filled with both excitement and regret. Interestingly, it also balances an indie-rock style, complete with vocals that are not out of place on Gypsy pop recordings.
Subway Rat goes for anthemic modern pop on “Hope!” and shows and openness in dealing with sentimentality. Elsewhere, “Crazy” echoes The Strokes at their most carefree.
And while throughout the pitch control of Subway Rat’s vocals varies, the raggedy tone works to make the songs sound honest. This is not the singing of someone who has had producers tampering with the emotional content.
In fact, adding sprinkles of melancholy over danceable indie-pop grooves is the album’s speciality. “Nostalgia” talks about impossibly beautiful homecoming queens, “Lost Without U” promises an out-of-touch lover that the songwriter will always use real guitar and bass on the songs written about them, and “Moon” ends up sounding like a broken-hearted, drunken lullaby.
Only love can break your heart, as the wise Canadian once said. But only love can move a musician to put themselves through this all. The album closer, “Modern Lovers,” comes equipped with a sturdy contemporary beat and with the album’s best turn of phrases. It’s a song of hope and despair at the hands of romance. Like Subway Rat’s work and “Captain of the Football Team”, it’s the hope of the brokenhearted who know they must work to find their own way forward.
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