![]() ![]() That record could have easily been trounced by Steve Lillywhite's spit-shine production, but the songs were so intricately layered and expertly crafted that I didn't really mind. Guster actually realized this in time for their third album, 1998's Lost & Gone Forever, an album I still give a spin from time to time. There was a charming simplicity to their portable music, but- as my esteemed colleague Mark Richardson once remarked about them on this very site- when you're doing the stripped-down acoustic thing, every song has to hit hard or your album won't hold up. Guster originally emerged from Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts in the mid-90s with a pair of self-released albums that brought their two-guitars-and-bongos busker act to the studio and earned them a bucketload of worshipful praise from the Boston music press. ![]() Traveling further up the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority's Red Line, we find another Boston-area band discovering that a distinctive sound can quickly become a well-worn rut, and subsequently branching out. God only knows what they'd sound like today if Mark Sandman was still with us. The fact is, Morphine had to change on that last album to avoid becoming totally lost in the cul de sac they found themselves in on their previous release, 1997's Like Swimming. Morphine had that problem to a degree, but they compensated with little deviations like "In Spite of Me", and ultimately even abandoned their stripped bass/drums/sax approach on their overlooked swansong, The Night. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |