Aluminum Babe shows splendid growth and maturity in their sophomore release, Vit.ri.fied, delivering a passionately charged record laced in colors of pop and indie rock. This is a candid and poignant release full of calming, dreamy and ethereal tunes, as the trio blends sweet Abba-like female vocals with chorus-laden guitars and luminous percussion. The lead vocalist displays a hauntingly original vocal technique, helping to fully captivate the band’s overall musical vision. The opener “I Don’t Wanna Be Loved” is enriched with beats and melodies that genuinely resonate the listener emotionally. “Dream Dancing” brings forth a meditative state of mind and body, complete with darker, introspective lyrics discussing themes of loneliness, emptiness and being unloved. To sum things up, Vit.ri.fied is a successful effort, able to grip and tug at one’s heartstrings, only then to move them in a more responsive way through dance. Perhaps a weakness is the inability to decipher the lyrics clearly, due to the heavy focus on synthesizers and delayed guitars. The material on much of the record is not feasible for commercial radio, yet their style and sound does merit college radio airplay, even though some tunes seem to lack a highly identifiable chorus or change of tension and dynamics through the use of a suitable bridge. Still, being produced by the band itself is a remarkable undertaking, and Aluminum Babe should be rewarded for their creativity and intelligence. The dance track “Standing and Waving Goodbye” shows the group’s talents to the highest degree. - Shawn M. Haney (Copper Press, 2005)

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Big strides forward for Aluminum Babe on their second album, Vit.ri.fried. This band can rock out, especially on the zesty "Disease Contagious" and a frenetic cover of Plastique Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi;" but on much of the record, they move away from the garage rock aesthetic of their self-titled debut in favor of smart, rhythmically charged indie pop. Particularly danceable are the songs "I Don't Wanna be Loved" and "Standing and Waving Goodbye." Lead vocalist/guitarist Anna has a pliant, appealing voice which is shown off particularly well in a supple ballad performance of Ween's "Baby Bitch." Rhythm section Jorge Musa and Darren Fried are a tight unit; I particularly like the intricate mid-tempo interplay they adopt on "Dream Dancing." It's exciting to hear a sophomore album avoid the slump and instead aim for a meteoric rise. - Christian Carey

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Had the members of Blondie listened to just a little more Talking Heads and started off at “Rapture,” they might very well have sounded like Aluminum Babe does here. The opening “I Don’t Wanna to be Loved” and “Upside Down” recall Deb Harry & Co.’s best work as crossed with more contemporary NYC “dance” bands, while “Standing And Waving Goodbye” imagines a more pitch-oriented Yoko Ono leading the world’s hippest modern day disco band. But AB isn’t stuck anywhere, as evidenced by the late track “Disease Contagious,” where the band gets its female-led Strokes on. There’s not much here in the way of an all-time classic but it’s a more than fun way to pass the time. – Jedd Beaudoin