Rapid Fire Reviews: Just Like The 90's
While 80's nostalgia is firmly cemented in the zeitgeist as of now there is no doubt a wave of DIY expressionism is on the way just like the early 90's. While these acts may not be at the forefront of that revival they are certain to influence it with some of their classic 90's works, and are still around making review worthy music to this day. Enjoy.
Soberish - Liz Phair
Liz Phair is a once critically acclaimed artist with a complicated history since the 90's. Her debut album Exile In Guyville is widely regarded as an indie classic but she was never quite able to attain that same level of acclaim as her sound transitioned into a more mainstream sound. This resulted in her 2003 self-titled album receiving massive backlash from her fans and many critics. It's been 11 years since Liz dropped her previous album, the largely joke record Funstyle which also received widespread hate from most of the people who heard it. I am not even as big a fan of the classic work in her catalog though she is at the very least an interesting artist, which had me curious enough to see how she would handle her comeback after such a strange career path. At its best Soberish is a simple pop rock record that sees Liz handling moderately personal and occasionally serious issues with simple instrumentals and singer-songwriter tactics. The biggest issue I have with the record is that there are weird songwriting quirks all over this thing that make songs like Hey Lou and Good Side both hard to take seriously and kind of inexplicable. When a song on the album has topical focus, decent songwriting and a palatable instrumental it can honestly be quite pleasant to listen to, but that only happens about half the time. The good songs here certainly indicate that Liz could one day return to making great albums, but with those little idiosyncrasies that make Liz who she is I think she's always going to have her heart set on doing it her own way, and potentially isolating some people in the progress. This record certainly isn't difficult to listen to, even if some of its tracks can definitely be difficult to swallow. 5.5/10
Endless Arcade - Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub are a British alt rock band who dabbled in jangle pop and power pop during a time when Brit Pop was the cultural mainstay in England. The group did achieve some level of attention for their nostalgic 60's inspired sound but most of the attention directed at them comes from the cult status of their 90's records like Bandwagonesque and Gran Prix. I am a fan of these records and it inspires me to check out what the band is doing when they show up every once in a while to drop new records and the same was true of Endless Arcade after I heard a few of its singles earlier this year. This record even more than some of their previous few pulls heavily from the early 60's sunshine pop era. Even being a fan of bands like The Kinks and The Beach Boys and their contributions to that sound I just don't see much here beyond imitation. Yes the sonic palette of these tunes is quite blissful and the simple arrangements make them easy to sway along to but if you try and listen to this entire record in the front of your mind it's difficult to not crave more stimulation than its providing. The occasionally song here and there has a catchy hook or a nice guitar lead but it all sounds pretty derivative and extremely predictable. The band will likely keep my attention as long as they're even around, but this record isn't quite delivering what I hope for from the band in terms of songwriting and creativity. 4.5/10
Earth Man Blues - Guided By Voices
Guided By Voices is the long running and extremely prolific indie and lo-fi rock project of Robert Pollard. Over the past 30 years the band has dabbled in numerous underground genres and scenes over their many releases and have maintained an incredibly consistent output even to this day with Earth being their 11th record in 6 years and 33rd overall. With most of the songs on the record being under 3 minutes the record features a ton of variety in its rock influences. There are a surprising amount of tracks here that have a classic rock feel despite the instrumental never being quite that clean. Rob's voice still sounds pretty good after all these years but when he is lightly cosplaying David Lee Roth it isn't quite as satisfying as it is on some of the murkier more punk flavored songs here. Some of the 80's flavored butt rock on the back half of this album is well, difficult to tolerate. While to some degree it's weird hearing Guided By Voices sound like this after being familiar with some of their classic material, even going as far back as the very same era they are channeling, I suppose all bands age differently. I guess all I can say is that I really did not expect to like the Liz Phair record the most out of all three of theses. 5/10
