This album was massive before my formative musical years, and so whilst I knew a couple of tracks, it wasn't exactly like the Goo Goo Doll's Dizzy up the Girl for ever-presence.
Evan Dando's band were thrust into the spotlight following their hastily thrown together yet top 20 chart-making cover of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson. Three hours in the studio has rarely reaped such rewards, and off the back of this success they re-released their album with this track added, to sizeable commercial success, especially considering the album clocks in at less than 30 minutes.
Rockin' Stroll is a great example of bubblegum rock-pop, although far from being the only example of this on the album. Indeed, it is what the album is pretty much entirely made up of. Confetti has a bit more about it, with some nifty guitar work and some crunchy distortion. The title track is a pleasant slice of radio-friendly acoustic rock, although I could never quite get my head round what the lyrics meant. Rudderless was a real stand out for me, with the best refrain on the album. My Drug Buddy has a very catchy, singalong chorus, but I didn't particularly enjoy it, being on the saccharine side of sweetness. Turnpike Down is forgettable, and Big Part injects some pace into proceedings, with a decent call-response approach, but it ends a bit quickly. Alisons Starting to Happen is a pretty decent song, but its missing apostrophe renders the song completely disappointing. Hannah & Gabi is pretty meh, with little to make it stand out. Kitchen is a pretty weak song, although possibly better than Ceiling Fan in my Spoon, which is just bizarrely poor, and utterly non-sensical. Frank Mills is an interesting story-telling song, with some real stream of consciousness in its nature, coming from the musical Hair. The Mrs Robinson cover has a cracking bassline that really comes to the fore, and makes you wish they unleashed this talent about more on the overly treble rest of the album. The whole band feels less constrained, as if the normal process of song-writing original material leaves them concentrating too much.
This is a very inoffensive, pleasant sounding album, which is both its strength and its weakness. Could I play it in the background on a regular basis and prefer it to silence - absolutely, and without question. However, the more I concentrate on it, the less appealing it becomes. It lacks originality, and the charm it has is spread pretty thinly over a sizeable chunk of filler. A disappointing album all in, that sells itself short.
Chloe's album rating: 7
Chloe's favourite track: 2. Confetti
Olly's album rating: 5
Olly's favourite track: 4. Rudderless
Next week is 522. Out of Step by Minor Threat; that will probably have more edge to it.
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