Vacation Rare Earth LP
Plenty of folks seem to really dig this long-running Cincinnati act, and the band managed to wow Feel It, a label with unassailable tastes, into putting out this album, so I’m going to assume I’m just missing something…because I fucking hated this record. This came as a genuine surprise to me considering that some of the folks involved in its making have also been responsible for some of my absolute favorite projects of the last few years, like the DRIN and BEEF. But the twelve tracks that make up Rare Earth bear little if any resemblance to those acts. In its best moments, I can hear snatches of things that I enjoy, like the poppiness of a Ric Ocasek or Alex Chilton tune, wed to things I definitely don’t, like emo-adjacent post-hardcore (think BRAID or the PROMISE RING) or the REPLACEMENTS at their alt-rockiest. In its worst moments, it sounds like “Rockstar” by JIMMY EAT WORLD. It’s earnest pop rock that sounds like it’s being played by a band that wants to make it big, specifically in the year 1997. A track like “Mobility” even sounds like it could have been pulled off the VERVE’s Urban Hymns. To be fair, these guys do what they do well—the songwriting is tight and it all sounds slick as shit—and I know folks love all of the stuff I mention above. But it just takes me back to a period of time that I consider to be among the most vapid and shitty for music. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just failed to embrace the power of rock’n’roll or whatever these dudes are selling. I’d probably feel better if I did.