Throughout Wolfie, and the Coat and Hat., the bandmembers display a confidence -- and a youthful pride -- missing from last year's Awful Mess Mystery. The first track, "They Call Me Leaves," again finds Wolfie indulging in Pixies-esque guitar work, augmented this time by simpler progressions and steady beats reminiscent of the Zombies. The tune also displays Ziemba's lyrical growth: It's about a young man -- "They all call me Leaves, that's me," he sings -- who sits "all alone on top of my bushy olive tree/That is just like the one my dad climbed as a kid" when confronted with life's problems. "The All Good People," is a tongue-in-cheek knock on the I'm-poor-but-happy-and-ain't-life-grand, patchouli-wearing set: "The all good people/They see a light/Dance 'cause you think that you should." Wolfie sheds all vestiges of punk in favor of pseudo-folk on "Rachel Carson," a Norwegian Wood-style narrative about a girl trying to keep a friend from passing out in her bed.
On previous efforts, Lyons's sporadic organ interludes sounded like a church lady invited to rock out with the kids in the garage band; here, they're a rhythmic component that the melodies rely on. Compounded by generally tighter playing and more focused lyrics, her progressions indicate that Wolfie is almost all grown up and ready to howl.
