Rating: Yes

Blueblood

An alternative band that still believes in throwing a guitar solo in the middle of a song, is, well, my kind of band. This is smart underground rock in the jingle-jangle Pavement vein, with loving rock-n-roll touches that remind you of Crazy Horse-era Neil Young. And though this outing's stripped down sound comes via recording on an 8-track system, it's much more cohesive than "Firewater," the band's standout 1996 release on Matador. And a whole lot more enjoyable. While that album was filled with dark details of loving too hard and drinking too much, this one is like waking up the morning after one of those I-almost-died nights, where you're just happy to be alive and not in jail... and able to smile about all the shit you got away with. The attitude shows in songs like Said It Too Late ("The only reason that I won't die/Is that I won't see you on the other side") and Beyond Repair ("On the road, such a long time/The more I look, the more I find/And you know, one fine day/I'm gonna make one of them mine"). The music stomps roughly about, knocking things over, while the guitars manhandle the melody over the top, along with Tim Midgett's warbly vocals. The faster numbers sound like a stripped down hybrid of Smart Went Crazy and The Wedding Present. Slower tracks, such as "Ritz Dance," sound like they came right off a copy of Richard and Linda Thompson's "Shoot Out the Lights." It's still a little too stark to be considered "party music," but maybe it's time to pull Silkworm out of the lonely underground music bins and place it in the cold light of day, where more people can enjoy this perfect cure for the common hangover.

-- Tim McMahan

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Copyright © 1998 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.