Published on Jul 5, 1997
If any band was rescued from obscurity by chance, it was the
BoDeans. With the selection of their song “Closer To Free” to be
the theme to Fox’s
Party Of Five, Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas leapt from being
the darlings of alternative radio to actual recognition by
mainstream radio. They may not have had superstar status, but it
was a start.
The album that spawned “Closer To Free,”
Go Slow Down, features some of this band’s finest moments —
as well as some of their weakest.
To describe the BoDeans sound is a lot like trying to tell a
small child why the sky is blue. The best answer I can come up with
is they’re a mixture of rock and country, with just a hint of
Tex-Mex thrown in for flavor. They defy true categorization,
because they do have a sound which is unique — and this may be why
mainstream radio was afraid to touch their music for so long.
“Closer To Free” is a great song, but it is hardly the best
material on the album. In fact, the whole first side of the album
contains some of their strongest songwriting. “Save A Little” is a
rolling mixture of wah-wah and skiffle which makes you want to get
up and dance a bit. When the liner notes to “In Trow” claim that
this song may be the best thing they’ve ever recorded, they’re not
kidding. It reminds me a lot of Fleetwood Mac’s “Never Going Back
Again,” and I wish this one was longer than the 54 seconds that it
is. Even the shuffle of the title track, which is slower than I
would have liked it to be, is infectiously wonderful. Neumann and
Llanas seem like they can do no wrong.
The second side weakens quite a bit. Sure, “Cold Winter’s Day”
is a haunting track which seems to be based on a true story. But
others get a little preachy. “The Other Side,” a song about
suicide, fails to take off – and it does seem to be pro-suicide, a
subject which I am a little touchy about. The themes of the other
songs — one’s sex drive (“Feed The Fire”), loneliness
(“Something’s Telling Me”) and the music business (“Stay On”) all
just don’t have the creative spark that made the first half of
Go Slow Down such a wonderful album.
The only other thing that may distract listeners of the album is
the fact that the BoDeans are an acquired taste. Having been a
listener since their 1989 album
Home, I am quite used to the quirkiness of the band. (I
would disagree with CDNow, who claim the Beat Farmers — who were a
mixture of rock and comedy – are a similar artist in style.) Albums
like
Go Slow Down are not easily digested in one listen — it
takes a couple spins in the tape deck before the strengths and
weaknesses can be clearly heard.
Producer T-Bone Burnett, who did such a great job on Counting
Crows’ debut, does seem like he’s captured the essence of Neumann
and Llanas quite well, and shows how talented a producer he is.
Go Slow Down is a solid half-album, with some songs that
prove that this band deserves wider airplay than they have gotten
over the years. The other cuts are to be approached at your own
risk.