The Soapbox Album Club 2018 Editon

I've been treating Tucker's rescheduling of the order with the contempt it deserves, so saved my review for his official slot unlike the rest of you sellouts. Unfortunately that means that I'm left echoing much of what's already been said: it's a good album but not a great one. Solid background stuff which never descends into muzak but doesn't have enough originality to stand out on its own - although that said I would probably check them out live given the chance. Some of the more upbeat numbers remind me of the kind of grooves The Bees hit around the time of Octopus, which is no bad thing.

I gave Free The Bees a listen the other day for the first time in a while. Still a great record, despite being so overtly pastiche ridden.

I still love that record too Kev - it's got such an amazing sound to it, especially on the vocals which are pretty raw in places. It would have been really easy for them to make the same record again and build on the success of Wash in the Rain and Chicken Payback, so I think the more groove/"world" oriented direction of Octopus was a pretty bold move. It tails off towards the end but the first half is great and one of my go-to records for sunny days.

I also thought about the Bees listening to the Cactus, but more about their last weak album than the playful others tbh

Two members of the Bees have a new band/record out

The 'youtube freeze screen' (or whatever you call the thing you click 'play' on) for that video is a hard 'nope!' for me, and I love(d) the bees.

Feel the death power, Mahoney. You can only dream of having my skills.

I've had a listen! My thoughts will be in on time don't you worry.

Though I think the other couple of times we did an album club it died on the 3rd or 4th round. You had the chance to go second when people were interested and blew it, when the album club dies it'll be all your fault.

I’ve also spun it a couple of times and will be ready to post my thoughts after another listen.

I'm afraid I can't say I connected much to this one. The kind of music is far closer to my alley and won't say it's fine but quite generic too. I like the sounds of it more than I do enjoy the songs, they're a bit like a more focused GBV... which I'm not sure is a positive thing. It might be me though, there's been a lot of leaks/releases these two weeks and my attention span (during the 4 or 5 listens I gave it) was probably weak.

I guess with this kind of one-off collaborative projects you have to be attached to at least one of the parts to really enjoy it, and even then I tend to think it usually adds less than the sum of they parts (Pete & Ronnie comes to mind). All and all, as always I sounded a bit too negative but there are some satisfying powerful country rock songs here. I'm giving it a 5,7/10

Enjoyed the ruggedness of Crater. It's got a real nice crunchy guitar sound that solo about halfway through the song cuts through nicely.

The Conquering Sun reminded me a bit of REM, which is fine. I'm no huge REM fan but I've never really tried. I found this one a bit boring, espcially after the punch of the opening track.

Los Angeles Times is a bit better. The REM'ness seems to have subsided and in places, it's got a bit more bite than the track which precded it. Still, by track 3 I'm still longing for the sound of the opening track.

Ah, One Good Fast Job, this is better. A dirtier and grittier track, at least musically. Things get a bit REM'y again for a bit in the final 3rd of the song but it doesn't last.

It Didn't Start To Break My Heart Until This Afternoon is much more like it. It's the most in your face thing on the record so far. It's bold and it's brash. I love the vocal harmony when 2 of them are singing. More like this please!

Budget Shoes reminded even more of REM than The Conquering Sun, but this tune is far better. It goes from dark and sinister to sounding to sounding quite nice quite effortlessly. I like drum work on show here.

Demand Destruction could almost be a punk/ska song. Anyone else get that? I can imagine a band like Goldfinger covering it. It's quite bouncy in it's verses.

Devil Enough was boring the piss out of me until around the 1:13 mark and then it got better with its change in pace which actually caught me off guard a bit and it's quite an enjoyable affair from this point on. Even the bit I found boring sounded better when it started up again.

For the first 2 or 3 seconds of I'm Free, Disaray Me, I though it was going to be a cover of George Harrison's Wah-Wah. Wasn't a huge fan of this track overall. It doesn't really go anywhere or do anything.

Saved is again, IMO, quite weak. Another track that doesn't do a great deal, it's just a bit blergh.

There are a couple of tracks here that I enjoyed a lot (and have subsequently added them to my huge Spotify playlist) but on the whole, this didn't blow me away.  It's not terrible by any stretch, just a bit uninteresting and not really enough going on to hold my attention.  I'm going to give this one 5.5/10.

I don't think I disliked a single track on this album. Obvs big R.E.M. Influences in places but lots of diversity away from that.

Knew nothing about him, The Tragically Hip or The Sadies before this but will deffo be checking out the Sadies back catalogue. They make a cracking noise.

Plenty of depth to the music, plenty of hooks, and he manages to sound quite different across the album.

Favourite tracks- Crater, Budget Shoes, It Didn't Start to Break My Heart Until..., One Good Fast Job.

Will definitely be back for more.

8/10

This was ok, nothing more, nothing less. I quite liked his voice and yep there's huge REM vibes here.

Even though absolutely everything on the album had a perfectly nice sound to it, nothing really jumped out at me chorus wise and stuck in my head. I generally found the instrumentation a bit bland really, it always felt like something was being held back to me. Fave song was probably 'Good Fast Job' which was nice and punchy.

Album scrapes 6 Stocky Stars out of 10 Stocky Stars

I'd never heard of the Tragically Hip until I read about Gord Dowie's cancer battle, etc.. And I remember skimming through a few songs back then and really not liking anything, so I was a little apprehensive with this choice.

The first five seconds of the album, as that crunchy guitar plays, I thought 'well this isn't too bad, but unfortunately, that was the best moment of the record to my ears. I don't want to say i dislike this, because I don't think it's that sort of album where anything is so offensive, but I think that's where the issue lies for me, it just feels very bland and just not the sort of production I go for.

As has been mentioned, it did remind me of that half decentish REM album 'Accelerate' in places, but actually felt like it was a pastiche of that half decentish REM album 'Accelerate', which just meant it held absolutely no gravitas for me and washed over me completely.

I can see where the pull on this sort of thing would be, I got the impression when listening, that I could recommend this to a couple of people I work with, who like a bit of music, not intensely, but like some bands, generally like their music to be made by men with guitars and don't particularly want anything 'too weird', just kind of like a bit of good, solid rock n roll and like their indie to be at the post 1980's end of REM, and I think they'd really like this. And I don't mean that as a criticism at all, I just think that's where it sits and where I don't.

3.5/10

Musically like everyone else I'm hearing a bit of R.E.M as well as Frank Blacks country influenced work with the Catholics. It also reminds me of those couple of solo records John Squire put out in the early 2000's, maybe it's the rough vocals
I don't know how long they all spent writing & recording this, but it at least feels like it came about quickly in the best possible way. I like that the tunes are direct & to the point, nothing ever outstays its welcome. A solid record with nothing that I disliked, though at the same time nothing stood out particularly for me, it was all just enjoyable in a pleasant kind of way. I preferred the harder sounding tracks such as the opener & "It Didn't Start To Break My Heart Until This Afternoon". The country influenced jangly stuff I'd have eaten up not so long ago, though I've kind of grown tired of that kind of sound in recent years.

Overall, pretty decent record that lacked highlights but was a nice listen start to finish. 6.25 from me.


FINAL DAY GUYS, GET YER REVIEWS IN JP & THE WYND.

Rhino_rocks_Man get your choice up tomorrow.

I'm fascinated by the fact everyone hears REM in the album....never would have guessed that in a million years. Glad most of you are enjoying it, in any case.

I've given this a couple of listens and it's close to being the kind of thing I like but overall it left me a little cold - a feeling I get with quite a few north American indie bands who flirt with alt-country influences. I didn't hear the REM influence as much as some others (I love early REM) other than in a few of the vocal tics which were slightly Stipe-esque. Perhaps it's an album which reveals its hooks with multiple spins but I can't give it more than an MOR 5.

thought this was alright. had little knowledge of anyone involved in this record beforehand and wouldn't be opposed to checking out more of their work. i got the rem thing too but also some richard hawley vibes on certain songs. agree with others that it lacks any real standout moments or anything that is too memorable but it's an enjoyable listen.

6.5/10