Published on Apr 30, 2004
First, I must issue my most sincere apologies to Ballyrag on two
accounts. When I received the disc, I left it in my desk for about
a week, too lazy to slide it into a CD player. I was most
pleasantly surprised at what I heard, but I’ll get into that in a
second. I also must apologize for losing the band’s e-mail address.
Sorry about my incompetence, guys.
I believe the best way to sum up this album is by using a quote
from track two, “you are candy for my ears.” That’s what this whole
album is: a brilliant, fun rock album. From start to finish, this
album is stocked with energetic guitars, groovy bass, catchy drums,
and brilliant vocals. As soon as the listener is hit with the
up-front vocal intro of “Jack Horner,” we know that we’re in for
one great ride.
One of the things that I really appreciate about this album is
its extremely broad range. Whereas most bands will play one style
of music, and toss the occasional ballad onto a record to try to
sound diverse, Ballyrag actually have each one of their songs
sounding completely fresh and new. It’s a tactic that works.
There’s the full-out rocking “Perfectly In My Way,” the slower,
ballad-esque “Edge Of The World” (complete with a penny whistle
(?), which scores a ton of cool points in my book), the slick,
fast-paced “Sara,” and several other songs that I simply can’t
classify. Also, the interesting interludes, like the Middle-Eastern
sounding chants on “Sweet Things” and the intro on “Texas” make
this album all the better.
The only song I can say that isn’t quite up to snuff with the
rest is the last track, “Dirty.” For some reason, it just doesn’t
flow that well with me, though I’m sure that it will grow on me the
more that I listen to this record.
Usually when I’m playing a rock album, I’ll listen to the whole
thing, and comment with something like “That was good…now
I’d better start spinning the Kreator before I turn into a wuss.”
With this album however, as soon as it was done, I hit the replay
button, so I could fully take in what I had just heard. What
followed was about a week of playing
Where the Ocean Meets The 10 non-stop.
I have to congratulate Ballyrag, they’ve restored my dwindling
faith in post-1992 American rock music. I urge everyone to give
this band and this album a listen, they’re most certainly worth
your time.