Instead of the silliness I expected, Frontier turned out to be one of the most assuredly grown-up and musically sophisticated poptronica albums I've heard in quite some time... Many of the songs feature mellow chords more typical of Burt Bacharach than Bronski Beat, along with cool calypso and subtly ska-inflected rhythms. Lifestyle makes up for lost manpower through technology, injecting buzzing analog basses, shiny digital synth pads, and electronic beats into the otherwise rock-oriented arrangements.
Sean Drinkwater's voice is an odd hybrid of Simon LeBon and Beck, minus the accents and triple-distilled for extra smoothness. Lyrically, Drinkwater casts himself as a low-budget poptronica Lothario...This frank romantic/sexual honesty is reminiscent of the notoriously blunt love/lust lyrics of Serge Gainsbourg and Momus -- except with less cynicism, and more tact.
-- Emil Hyde, 100unnatural.com

Lifestyle offers Frontier, a hook-laden collection of pure synth-pop. For an idea of what it sounds like, picture Morrissey on Prozac fronting A-ha. If reunions from both New Order and Roxy Music have yet to prove that another revival of '80s nostalgia is under way, Lifestyle's Frontier is further evidence... With enough positivity and catchy melodies to put a smile on the face of even the biggest cynic, one might be tempted to call Frontier an album of mindless retro-pop. Just don't expect to hear any apologies from the band.
-- Billboard Magazine

The sublimely idiosyncratic Boston-based label Archenemy made its presence felt this year with a couple of superb discs... Lifestyle's new EP Frontier is filled with disco-and-new wave-fueled paeans to life in the fast lane, including the unforgettable "It Doesn't Mean That I Don't Love You If I Forget to Call You Back," "Are you coming on to me?" and "I'd really like to makeout with you."
-- The Boston Phoenix

Synthpop is officially back, and the would-be leader of the millennial synth revolution is Lifestyle. Sean Drinkwater's lead vocals channel this Boston quartet's high, high, high energy, and let me tell you, he ain't afraid to belt it out. But, buyer beware: these songs will alter your DNA. You WILL be humming "it doesn't mean that I don't love you..." And you WILL walk down the street singing "la la la la la la la la la la," from "my favorite song." In a post-indie world, this band isn't afraid to make themselves sound good, a refreshing change from so much muddy, pretentious, purposely idiosyncratic recordings filling the shelves of college radio stations and record stores these days. Chalk one up for pop.
-- bambina, candyforbadchildren.com

HOLY CATCHY POP SONGS BATMAN! It's as if these guys went back to the 80's, studied the good and the bad, kept the good stuff for themselves, and threw the bad stuff to MTV to jerk off with.
From the dance floors of Chelsea in NYC to the 80's retro nights that have popped up all over middle America, there's something for everyone on this Lifestyle release. The lyrics aren't heavy and overburdened with social angst. Instead, they make suggestions like, "I guess we could get down" and "Are you coming on to me, is this how it is going to be?" This album is one gigantic flirtation.
The Pulp sounding "I'd Really Like to Make Out with You" gets my vote for best song to woo a girl with (or guy, transsexual, blow-up-doll - depends on your preference). Imagine: This song is playing in the background; You meet a girl so delicious that she makes you forget that we are on the verge of world destruction; You drive off into the unknown night on a Vespa scooter. Pure fun!
I saved the best song for last. "My Favorite Song" is what all dancey pop songs should aspire to. This song has the Duran Duran "Hungry Like the Wolf" guitar lick, vocals that lay on top of the song like syrup on blueberry pancakes, a melody that I guarantee won't leave you for months, and the catchiest chorus I've ever heard. Let's be honest, any song with repeating "La La La's" in it has to be great.
Back in the 80's, we had a Republican for president, we were on the verge on complete world destruction, the Boston Celtics had a good basketball team, and music was made to dance to. Music was an escape from all of the nastiness happening around us. Some 20 years later, we are right back where we were in the 80's, and this time around, bands like Lifestyle are providing the fun. These songs make me to roll around with a yummy girl with Lifestyle as our soundtrack. Let the world blow up and crumble all around me. At least I'll die having fun!
-- Rayon, earlash.com

Frontier, Lifestyle's new e.p., is like a magic (black or white, that's questionable) book made to raise from the dead what seemed buried for good. It's a collection of songs which seem to have been written with the aid of, say, ABC or Duran Duran (and lead singer Sean Drinkwater's voice has something vaguely simonlebonesque), or Classix Nouveau in a sort of unusually happy mood. And, this is, actually, a very good thing about Lifestyle.
Their evocative power is immense, meaning that they instantly remind you of someone or something very familiar, thus making the record very catchy and enjoyable. Lots of names, apart from the ones above, come to mind, from Spandau Ballet to Roxy Music, from Erasure to A Certain Ratio, maybe the closest refererence to Lifestyle's electrohandclapguitarpop.
Becoming sort of kitsch is quite too easy, if you go the synth way, but Lifestyle manage to keep their choices very well balanced, combining looped sequences and electric guitars with surprising maturity and, in a way, sophistication. Lifestyle are now about to release their second full-length album, which will no doubt prove how far this maturity has gone and if they'll consolidate their ever growing cult state. It wouldn't bad, though, to see what they'd sound like if they stayed away from the dancefloor for a while and seriously tried to be the next space oddity.
Four stars.
-- Max Malagnino, rainsound.net

I hopped off the Green Line Trolley and ran into the Paradise just as Lifestyle took the stage. I was ready to be treated to Boston's version of a synth-pop show and Lifestyle was about to begin to deliver it. Lead singer Sean T. Drinkwater showed no signs of holding back; he danced, gestured, and hopped into the audience whenever the feeling hit him. This guy was made to sing and perform synth-pop. He has the voice, the attitude, and the style.
Lifestyle makes me want to be in a synth-pop band. That night, the band had so much fun on stage it made me want to go out and buy a synthesizer the very next day. The band pumped out the kind of pure dance-pop songs that would make Martha Quinn gush for more. As luck would have it, Lifestyle ended their set with "My Favorite Song", which just happens to be my favorite song of theirs.
-- Phoebe, earlash.com

If an audience defines the sound of the band, there really is no way to describe Lifestyle -- the group somehow managed to draw a mixed bag of sullen indie-rockers, drunken college students, grinning thirty-somethings and several individuals who just may have been Duran Duran reborn.
With a live energy that is completely infectious, Lifestyle picks up where new wave left off years ago. Drinkwater's vocals combine sexual power and a boyish charm apparent in his smooth disco undulations, and the rest of the band puts out their image in a giddy way that says dance, please. Because of the small venue, Drinkwater was able to coax the audience into motion; pointing, jumping on and off the stage and weaving through the crowd at will. Girls screamed and reached out to touch his leather jacket as if he were a lesser version of Bono -- and he appeared to love every hyped-up second. Stone sported a sparkly, pink feather boa, which he alternately wore or tossed out to the crowd, and Swallow and Trolley fed off their frenzy.
Lifestyle required an open mind and dancing shoes live and Frontier is no different. It is not the kind of CD you can play with a low to medium volume control -- it begs to be blasted, if for the first track "My Favorite Song." While the song's chorus is somewhat of a cop-out -- Drinkwater crooning "la la la la la" to the beat, the verses are cutely introspective, and the sound is '80s without any annoying and whiny wailing. Due to Stone's ripping cuts on the guitar, their brand of synth pop has somehow managed to include a rare dash of rock-and-roll sensibilities.
While synth pop circa Magnetic Fields and New Order can prove to be irritatingly mellow, Lifestyle is pure, unfiltered, happy music. There is nothing groundbreaking or particularly unique about that in terms of where music is progressing today -- but really, is there anything wrong with that? Finding a band that can take something that most people break out for secret dance parties and turning it into digitized, poptronica burst of sound is just ... fun. These endearing boys may be newcomers to an old trend, but they put the cryptic smiles back on the faces of new wave lovers.
-- Sharon Steel, The Daily Free Press

Lifestyle is the music of the international jetset, the rich, the famous and the fortunately born. Fate has torn the crown of high-life melodies and preternatural good looks from the aging head of Simon Le Bon and placed it lovingly atop the perfectly shaped skull of Sean T. Drinkwater. Lesser men would have fallen. Instead, Drinkwater's meticulous production and prodigious songwriting skills uphold the hierarchy and resurrect the long lost art of synth pop.
Drinkwater rules the kingdom of new wave ennui with a majesty unparalleled since the great and glorious days of "Take on Me" and John Taylor's spectacular haircuts. Long live the king of foreign sports cars, luxury yachts, international jewel thieves, private jets, secret missions, silk champagne, and adulterous love!
If you thought you liked it then, wait till you hear it now!
-- Jessica Hundley, Mommy and I Are One

Lifestyle's album hearkens mightily to the days of O.M.D., the Human League, and other progenitors of synth-based pop in the wake of the new wave. Having survived the JUNO-106 years, I can personally assure the reader that the boys have got the details right. Though it all seems a bit tongue in cheek, Lifestyle have got it down pat, and I would guess there's a great deal of affection involved... Like the New Romantics before them, the influences are of a particular fabric: Bowie, Roxy Music, Japan. Of course, the real question is whether this is just schtick. It's hard to assess because much of the music that influences Lifestyle has humour in it. The occasional lyrical wink seems only part of the concept and therefore, doesn't cheapen the affair. Also, there's a bit of a Bacharach influence that makes this somewhat more than a joke.
I see a bright future for Lifestyle replete with a video trilogy filmed in Sri Lanka and yachting incidents.
-- Corin Ashley, The Noise

Starting with the Casio simple pop tune, 'Yardsale,' Lifestyle seem innocent enough; a nice pop tune with a certain retro sensibility. Then 'White Whale' starts and we get a combo Duran Duran meets ABC at David Bowie’s Dance Club. Sean Drinkwater fits the frontman duties with a swagger and attitude that makes the listener, for the moment, forget that any of his predecessors even existed. The lo-fi 'Cake and Champagne' comes next and while a grand sing-along with a mean pop hook, you think, O.K., that 80's power pop shot was just an exception. 'J.C. Penney Model,' a slick combination of both styles, very nice. Then 'That Sounds Like Love' kicks the stops out. This record is filled with little pop gems and bravada performances that fame is made from. Buy the record, pour a drink, dim the lights and prepare for a night of romance circa 1981; no poison arrows here, but the look, I mean, the sound of love. Remember, when it comes to quality retro pop, it's not a look, it's Lifestyle.
-- Cheeseball