Something happened to I Was Totally Destroying It in the past year, as though the band collectively decided its career had better be more than a few Cradle shows and local adulation (or derision, depending on whom you ask) after releasing its full-length debut in 2007. The tight, precise, polished power-pop the band peddles is the kind of ear-grabbing musical snowcone that many love, many love secretly, and many outwardly hate. This band could or should be famous, and its new, seven-track, MP3-for-free EP Done Waiting sounds refined enough to make for the big time. Whereas that first LP promised versatility at the risk of consistency, this EP finds the band, sonically at least, bursting with purpose. The debut's lighthearted momentariness gives way to a bolder push for something—anything—bigger.
In the process, some of the local allusions that made the debut a Triangle hit get lost, swapped for an elliptical songwriting tack that still suits the band's melodic propensities. Only "Teeth," with its snapped syllables and rhythmic bludgeon, cracks the sing-song mold, and even it swells into a milkshake-smooth chorus.
IWTDI's previous variety act comes folded into better textures beneath these focused tracks: No longer the chugging guitar-centrists of last year, the band stretches its range by adding acoustic plunking to the foreground of "The Masquerade" over the near-Theremin glow of Rachel Hirsh's keyboards. The album's most spacious track, it's a welcome contrast to the other tracks' large-venue ambition. Indeed, what's constant throughout is the record's clear ascendant aims, as if IWTDI got out of the basement and got dressed for a big-time job interview.
I Was Totally Destroying It plays Troika Music Festival at The Pinhook Saturday, Nov. 8, at 11 p.m. Tickets are $5. To download Done Waiting, visit reverbnation.com/iwastotallydestroyingit.
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