Album Notes

Creative Loafing (Atlanta):

Shut-Ups frontman Don Condescending knows his way around a pop song - and not just in the way lots of average indie-pop bands recreate Beatles and Beach Boys sounds. He writes with the craft of someone obsessed enough to have spent the last 20 years deconstructing catchy songs, studying the conventions of the form. The Shut-Ups soon-to-be-released second album, It Hurts To Be Seen, continues to mine new-wave pop geekery, but with far more sophistication and polish than its predecessor. It won't change the world, but this smart, fun, confection of a record deserves to be heard.

(Roni Sarig)

Allmusic.com:

Overall, you could argue that this is the kind of record Brian Wilson would have made if he had grown up a geeky kid in the new wave era.

(Matt Fink)

Creative Loafing (Savannah):

Lots of new-wave pop energy, I-got-angst-in-my-pants-and-I-need-to-dance attitude and girlish harmonies that take the expressway to your heart, and feet too...This ain't revenge of the nerds, it's more like revelry...a joy to listen to, start to finish.

(Jeff McDermott)