A Thing Called Divine Fits is a smart, dynamic thing, an honest thing, a thing of compact beauty. It comes as no surprise that this sounds like a thing made by songwriters and musicians who have spent years honing their craft.
There are songwriting tricks and sounds recognizable from the Divine Fits members’ other/previous bands. The Handsome Furs synth bass and Spoon’s distinctive vocal delays make appearances throughout the record. And yet, there are signs that this is more than a side project. Daniels’ lyrics on Shivers are so brutally vulnerable, it’s not the kind of playful exercise I would expect from a one-off collaboration. It actually appears as though both singers’ lyrics are more personal than global this time around, a change for Boeckner in particular. The class warfare of Serve The People and Cheap Music is replaced by declarations of turmoil in his own heart. “Heart” is the most often used word on the album, to an almost ridiculous extent, though this band manages to keep it on the sincere (heartfelt!) side of the spectrum.
Many of what I consider to be the most effective songs on ATCDF occur after the Salton Sea interlude. Baby Get Worse in particular is a gem. The individual parts are simple as can be, but the arrangement is all kinds of clever. This is a pop song with a great chorus that has been arranged with intelligence and subtlety. As with the rest of the album, on Baby Gets Worse the band has eschewed fireworks in favour of a transparent, honest sound. These are strong, meaningful songs that are supported rather than obscured by the band’s production choices. Divine Fits has identified the fundamental nature of each song on the record, and cut straight to that core.
