The Ready Set - Feel Good Now EP

The Ready Set

Feel Good Now EP

After being plucked from relative obscurity by Fall Out Boy bassist/ emo tastemaker Pete Wentz, the Ready Set surprised the industry by striking it big with “Love Like Woe,” a smooth slab of electro-pop that bridged the gap between scene kids and R&B radio audiences and moved more than a million downloads. What’s perhaps less surprising is that the band—led by Jordan Witzigreuter—have maintained the course for the follow-up.

Feel Good Now is fairly in line with the Ready Set’s back catalog, and these tunes are just as bubbly and upbeat as anything on I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming, for better and for worse. “Killer” is a vaudeville-meets-ragtime number that recalls the schizophrenic early period of Panic! At The Disco, while “Back To Back” (the EP’s standout track) melds the brisk cadence and pseudo-rap stylings of “Love Like Woe” with pounding keyboards and a stomping, infectious chorus culled from the turn-of-the-century boy-band era (think *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye”).

Even so, there’s not much diversity, something a sound like Witzigreuter’s sorely needs; instead, the songs follow the same general formula: all loaded up with Nintendo blips and beeps, synthetic vocals and produced within an inch of its life, at times feeling lifeless and robotic. Still, it’s a sound that seems to be sticking around for a while, one that might find the Ready Set on the path to continued success. Here’s hoping for a little more diversity next time around, though.

Sire/Reprise

“Back To Back”