Album Review #4

I had a great idea for my last blog post- taking proverbial uses of the word 'time' and relating them to real-life situations that I have been experiencing this Summer 2010. I couldn't even finish the article because that idea is self-redundant. My intentions for this blog were to follow a road-map, not an emotional imagery map (ala Dale) so many apologies for a little self-indulgence.

I remembered that Don Dohr is kicking my ass in album reviews. Here you go Don, I'm going to catch up to you now.


Artist: Widespread Panic
Album: Dirty Side Down
Total Tracks: 12
Release Date: 25 May 2010
Total Length: 1:02:00
Notable Tracks: North, This Cruel Thing, the guitar solo in True to My Nature
For Those Who Like: outdoor grilling and Keystone
Overall Rating: 3/5 Pears.



REVIEW:

Remember the ever-so-popular Will Farrell sketch on Saturday Night Live which left generations of post-Wayne's World SNL fans pining for more cowbell? The percussion instrument, ubiquitous in the Southern-Rock and Jam band genres, is used more in Domingo Ortiz's vocabulary than the word "the" in Widespread Panic's 11th studio release, "Dirty Side Down." This Georgia-based band has been championed for neo-Dead jam band sensibilities with influence from other pan (and pot) fried rock as the Allman Brothers and Skynard. "Dirty Side Down" contains some great songs and demonstrates the consistently smokey-yet-strangely-soothing vocals of John Bell and the near virtuosic lead guitar lines from Jimmy Herring. However throughout the initial, secondary and ternary listens, there is something inconspicuously plastic and preserved about its production.


[A moment of live reviewing, which may be the way I review albums in the future]

The album opens mysteriously from the gate with open string distortion and a mode-mixing prelude appropriate for a fourth track ballad...nearly a minute into "Saint Ex" it sounds like you've entered "Welcome to the Machine." Track 1 1:32 - make way for the cowbell! Comforting. "Save me slowly...don't apologize with philosophy..." And NOW we're in a Southern-rock jam album. But do not 'Panic' because rock organ and vocal distortion makes everything alright.

The opening track might be a bit sleepy and glum but the remainder of the album will keep one drinking two pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. The second track, "North" brings the cowbell to the forefront right away, establishing a great road song temp0, with lyrics appropriate to the music:

Trials and tribulations
Face us every day
Baby, you used to talk too much,
Now you don't have much to say
Throw it out and say it's fortune
Throw it out and say it's luck
Tell me that it's all intention,
Ask me if I give a fuck
I don't

You think that I'm stupid,
I think that I'm cool
Haul you back to Texas baby,
Send you back to school
Last thing that I need is a mustang,
Last thing that I need is a tan
I'm gonna get myself up north,
Find out who the hell I am

I go north, the sun it hurts my eyes
But I don't really care, they're all drowning down here
So I will disappear, I will disappear
Find my way up north, find out what I'm worth
Try and understand, just how big I am

This is a fun album if you are working in your garage or playing beach volleyball after an afternoon of brats and Corona. But if one is not having fun in the sun "Dirty Side Down" is a bit formulaic. Nonetheless, these guys know how to create a good product and if these songs can stand out in a studio record, imagine what kind of energy a live performance would emit.

Support LIVE music, case in point.

...and please Dear Jesus...no more cowbell.