The folks over at 75 or Less are saying nasty things about the new Rhett Miller album:

"Like the Air Suppliers said," Rhett? "I cannot believe that you're my lover," Rhett? Ken and Murray and Phil must be rolling in their graves with laughter. Oh, I know the Old 97s are still together, supposedly. But they would be forgiven for never wanting anything to do with you ever again. It seems loooooove has taken its toll on your cheese detector. The most annoying thing? Some of the songs are actually damn catchy. But who wants to be singing stuff like "unless you come around/so come around"? Triple fucking gag. Call the boys, beg forgiveness, and then we'll talk.

(Actually, that's the whole review, not an excerpt. That's sort of the point of their reviews, after all-- no more than 75 words... There's more snarkiness in the comments, though, so click on over there anyway...)

Now, I'll agree that some of the lyrics are dippy, but, really, are they any worse than some of the stuff on Too Far to Care (which, for the record, has been the album of choice in my office and lab for the past month or two). Like, for instance:

So I sidled up beside her,

Settled down and shouted "Hi there,

My name's Stewart Ransom Miller, I'm a serial lady killer."

She said "I'm already dead."

That's exactly what she said.

or what may be my favorite dippy line from the album (no, I can't explain why):

'Cause I got issues, yeah

Like I miss you, yeah.

(I could lift more from Fight Songs, but that was already regarded as a sell-out album, so it doesn't carry any indie cred...)

The lyrics on The Instigator are clearly the product of the same mind that gave us some of those earlier gems. The only real difference between them is that the songs on the new record are happy-- they're about what happens when the girl with the big brown eyes who's eighteen hundred miles away comes home. Maybe this is just a sign that I've lost all coolness points by being happily married, but what's wrong with that? Does coming from an alt-country background mean that Miller has to be drunk and bummed all the time? He wrote and recorded some dippy pop songs-- big deal.

And, as the review grudgingly notes, they're catchy as all hell. There are worse evils in this world than an album full of insanely catchy and reasonably literate pop tunes-- in fact, given that the prevalence of sludgy, angst-ridden pseudo-metal these days, I'd say that we need more albums like The Instigator. I wouldn't turn down another Too Far to Care or Fight Songs, either, but "Four Eyed Girl" is the very pinnacle of dippy pop songcraft, and worth the price of the record all by itself.

The new songs aren't really Holland/ Dozier/ Holland or Smokey Robinson material, but they are cheerfully un-ironic love songs which somehow manage to not be utterly stupid. It's a refreshing change of pace from the current run of dire pop music, and a really good album.

(For other Rhett Miller commentary , see here and here)