Wild like Children, Dranders

I'll try to go as long as I can without talking about the tap dancing.

Tilly and the Wall's Wild like Children examines—through a lens of adulthood—how being young was fucking... wild. It's BIG on the teen angst, but the band very transparently LONGS for that angst as adults, and does their damnedest to have fun singing about it. It's retrospective to the point that much of the lyrics are written in past tense (which made the a cappella finale in "The Ice Storm, Big Gust and You" all the more satisfying, as they declare what they "will" do and "won't" do [future tense]). 

Thematically, it spans that wide, adolescent range of everything from falling in love to wanting to goddamn KILL yourself. But it’s never truly bleak, ever. Highlights include "Reckless" (give it a little tappy, tap-tap-tapiroo!) and "Perfect Fit" which had very "View From Halfway Down" vibes, for any BoJack Horseman fans out there. There were even two tracks that looked back fondly on gay romance, which is bold considering being perceived as gay in high school is rarely remembered that way.

Finally, they have a freaking tap dancer. Obviously a tap dancer can't produce the same dynamic percussion as, like, an actual drummer, BUT the relative simplicity of the rhythms makes it feel like less of a gimmick. You really don't think about the tap dancing, it's just organic. They also rotated the lead vocals a fair amount, which is always a good way to make each member of the group more indispensable. And they pulled off some dope mixed-voice harmonies. Honestly, it's some pretty emo subject matter, yet they managed to stay upbeat between ballads. And why not? It’s WILD like Children, keep it a little wild! No one wants CYNICAL ASSHOLES like Children, am I right???