''Team Boo'' is the third album by American

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

duo

Mates of State Mates of State are an American indie pop duo, active since 1997. The group is the husband-and-wife team of Kori Gardner (born June 16, 1974) (vocals, organ, synthesizer, piano, electric piano, and occasional guitar and drums) and Jason Hammel ...

. It was released on September 16, 2003 by

Polyvinyl Records In polymer chemistry, vinyl polymers are a group of polymers derived from substituted Vinyl group, vinyl () monomers. Their Polymer backbone, backbone is an extended alkane chain . In popular usage, "vinyl" refers only to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ...

. The album was produced by

Jim Eno Jim Eno (born February 8, 1966) is the drummer and one of the founding members of the Austin, Texas band Spoon. He is also a record producer and a semiconductor chip designer. Eno is not related to sound engineer and record producer Brian Eno; ...

of American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Spoon A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for ...

and

John Croslin The Reivers were an American pop band from Austin, Texas. Formed in 1984 as Zeitgeist, they were forced to change their name before releasing their second album in 1987, due to another group claiming prior rights to the name. They chose the name ...

, who produced the duo's debut album '' My Solo Project''.

Critical reception

''Team Boo'' garnered positive reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

s. Tim Sendra of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

praised the album's upbeat production and the vocal work of Gardner and Hammel giving life and exuberance to even slower tracks like "Parachutes (Funeral Song)" and "An Experiment", saying that "''Team Boo'' is a record that will make even the staunchest nonbelievers believe in the power of simply played, honest, and energetic pop music again." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' writer Rob Mitchum said that despite some slow-placed tracks, the album was a return to form into '' My Solo Project'' territory thanks to the production work of John Croslin and Jim Eno leading them there, saying that "''Team Boo'' turns out to be a surprisingly respectable junior-year effort-- one that puts Mates of State in the small minority of indie-pop bands that don't fall under the one-album-and-out rule." Mackenzie Wilson of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' praised the duo's elegant and idiosyncratic musicianship complementing their vocal harmonies, saying that "Gardner's girlish vocals snugly wrap around her husband's boyish charm, letting on to Mates of State's genuine love for music as well as for one another."

Track listing

References

2003 albums Albums produced by Jim Eno Mates of State albums Polyvinyl Record Co. albums {{2000s-indie-pop-album-stub