So I took a few flyers on some new releases the other day, here are my thoughts.
American Princes – Little Spaces
First impressions, this is a terrible record. The lead singer couldn’t suffer any more through the awful, clichéd songs. It’s a Man’s World, are you kidding? How terrible of a track name is that, the lyrics are equally terrible. Rock’n Roll Singer is like a failed homage to The Byrds, So You Wanna Be A Rock’n Roll Star. In The Dark sounds a lot like Simon & Garfunkel being tortured while singing the Sounds of Silence. The rest of the album of the virtually unlistenable, the lead singer only seems to know one way to get his lyrics across, by whincing. I’m really surprised Yep Roc released this piece of crap. On the plus side, I am eating some good chocolate right now.
Grade: D
Cross Canadian Ragweed – Garage
First impression, not bad, a little too radio friendly for me though. A little too country, not enough alt for my liking, a little too much cheese guitar. First song kinda has a Catch Scratch Fever riff to it, but the Skynnard guitar cut aways are irritating. The production is also a little too country slick for me, after all, the name of the record is Garage, it should have some real rough edges. In the end, I feel like these guys are trying too hard to be heard on the radio. Despite all this, I do enjoy bands with names that have derivations of the word “Canada” in them.
Grade: C-