Watching It Can Make You Blind

Imperial Teen “We Do What We Do Best”

I’ve been listening to Imperial Teen since their first album came out in the mid ‘90s, and it’s taken me a long time to figure out what it is about them that makes them distinctive among indie/power pop bands: It’s the constant suggestion of seediness and odd sexual energy. The queerness of the band has always been overt, but that dirty, furtive quality is more subtextual. It’s in the playful but nervous energy in the tunes, and the way they can create this tightly-coiled tension in their grooves that screams “barely repressed horniness.” “We Do What We Do Best,” the first single from their sixth album, is indeed them doing what they do best. They chant that title phrase as one of the key hooks and the cockiness suits them well. Their synth tones are on point here too – a bit filthy, a bit dorky. It’s in a direct lineage of pervy new wave going back to The Cars and Soft Cell.

Buy it from Bandcamp.