More Down Than Out’s slogan is simple: never boring. And what with Morane’s acoustic instrumentation and Markus Nikolai’s glitch effects lending an unpredictability to the proceedings, Everyone Is Like You certainly fits the bill. The essential breakdown of each song is guitar, bass, and drums, but within those four minutes is a multitude of possibilities. Often times horns feature heavily, most notably in the highlight “Do Not Write Me a Lovesong” and the sing-songy “I Do It Best.” What Morane seem to be creating here is a hybrid between pop, IDM, and house and while at times it can get a bit too childish (“We Hate Cars,” “Where’s My Head”), it’s the sort of glee that can be excused as naïve enthusiasm.

More Down Than Out / MDTO 02CD
[Todd Burns]