Best Party Ever : The Boy Least Likely To : Review : Rolling Stone

If all your childhood stuffed animals got together and started a band, it might sound like the Boy Least Likely To, a British duo whose cutesy indie-rock songs have more snap, crackle and pop than a bowl of Rice Krispies. On The Best Party Ever, singer Jof Owen and multi-instrumentalist Pete Hobbs pair a pile of merry noises (banjo, glockenspiel, accordion and a host of miscellaneous toy instruments) with neurotic lyrics that catalog an array of phobias both grand and mundane. "I'm happy because I'm stupid," sings Owen on the irresistible album opener, "Be Gentle With Me." "Scared of spiders, scared of flies/If I wasn't so happy, I wouldn't be so scared of dying." In the country-folk number "I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes," Owen notes, "I'd love to go to San Francisco, but I'm too afraid to fly," over a galloping bass line. The melancholy "The Battle of the Boy Least Likely To," should please fans of both Belle and Sebastian and Badly Drawn Boy, and there's even something of the Beatles' Rubber Soul in the woozy "Sleeping With a Gun Under My Pillow." Impressive work from a couple of guys who play with toys.