People Like Us Review

The circumstances are the review. The band had been finished for years, a contract said one more album, and so one more album exists. Much of it was recorded with the members in the studio at different times, which destroys the single thing they were for: four people singing into the same room and listening to each other. What replaces it is stacked overdubs that never quite lock, over arrangements that are heavier and more session polished than the group ever needed.

Phillips is still capable of a decent melody and Step Out and Shooting Star are not embarrassing. Elliot sounds tired, which she had every right to be. Nothing here has the lift of even the weaker moments on the third album, and the whole thing carries a flatness that no amount of orchestration covers. It was ignored on release and it deserved to be. Completists only, and even they will not play it twice.