Koufax: Koufax : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Koufax must be pretty psyched that the jaunty, New Wave-inflected rock that this Midwestern quintet has been playing for the past six years has finally earned commercial viability, thanks to the success of bands such as Hot Hot Heat and the Walkmen. On their third full-length, Koufax strike just the right balance between subtlety and swagger. Frontman Robert Suchan exhibits his flair for dramatic, Morrissey-like crooning on "Five Years of Madness" and "Isabelle," while keyboardist Jared Rosenberg provides the melodic counterpoint. What it lacks in surefire hit tunes, Hard Times makes up for in memorable narratives about disgruntled cashiers who steal money from the register and seemingly docile neighbors with mob ties. The band gets geopolitical on the album closer, a sly ditty about how one touring band hides from the U.S.'s current foreign policy: "Colour Us Canadian."