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Growing up isn’t the process of changing out one personality for another, but rather sorting, weeding and getting rid of all the extraneous baggage that clutters up one’s personality in the early years. It’s not a question of finding oneself, but of becoming more of oneself as times goes on.
Led by Elizabeth Elmore, The Reputation could teach a lot of bands a thing or two about growing up and moving on without ignoring one’s roots. While the former Sarge front woman leads her new troupe mostly toward the same ends as she did with her previous outfit, The Reputation picks up loads of subtle nuances, mature insight and a slightly more grown-up take on Elmore’s guitar-driven power pop.
Inattentive listeners may brush off this album as simply the next chapter in the Sarge story, but that’d be nothing less than shortsighted folly. While The Reputation slings the same guns as Sarge - Elmore’s trademark white-hot guitar and siren voice are still the staples of her new band - there’s a lot more in its arsenal. The Reputation opens with some sugar-coated kernels of power-pop ire that stress its ties to Sarge ("The Stars of Amateur Hour"), though soon The Reputation is flying on its own, as it calls up everything from somber piano work ("The Uselessness of Friends") to the mysteries of a brass section ("She Turned Your Head") from the reserve units. Heck, by penultimate selection, ("For the Win"), the band flexes its musical muscles and develops an honest-to-God jam, with intricate bass and guitar interplay while piano and brass fleshes out another couple layers of melody.
Just as her musical palette’s expanded, so has Elmore’s delivery. While she still wraps each syllable in cotton candy, she’s moved on from the beaming popstress she once was. This time around, she takes on a smokier, moodier and all together more sophisticated delivery, one that gives The Reputation’s songs a moody atmosphere entirely absent in the Sarge recordings. Sarge is but a memory, packed up with the high school yearbooks and snapshots from college parties. Some, especially in the music world, would say adulthood is a curse to be avoided at all costs. The Reputation proves that’s just poppycock: Maturity is a good thing, when done as well as The Reputation does it.