Segue alert! Segue alert! It is really a bad thing when I have this much energy and have yet to drink my first caffeinated beverage. I am actually a little scared. I think I might explode at some point. I blame Guster. Let's add hyperactivity to the carpal tunnel lawsuit.
"One Man Wrecking Machine" – Let me begin by being a broken record — great chorus. They do something ingenious with the chorus on this song. It has certainly been done before, but it is done really well here. The first few times through the song, while traveling back through time as the song does, this is your chorus:
"I want to pull it apart and put it back together,
I want to relive all my adolescent dreams,
Inspired by true events on movie screens,
I am a One Man Wrecking Machine"
When the song returns to the present, this is your chorus:
"I tried to pull it apart and put it back together,
No point in reliving all my adolescent dreams,
Inspired by true events on movies screens,
I am a One Man Wrecking Machine."
Some artists would have repeated the same chorus despite the shift in the song. Guster could have done that and this song would still be great. That they did not take the lazy way out only makes the song that much better.
"Ruby Falls" – Some songs go seven minutes (and longer) because the artist did not know when to stop. I get tired when I listen to songs like that. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to song lengths. Compact is probably the best approach most of the time. There are only a handful of artists that do "epic" well.
You won't find many epics on a Guster album. "Ruby Falls" is an exception and it is a wonderful exception. "Ruby Falls" is seven minutes because it should be- because it has to be. It almost plays as a mini-suite with distinct movements. It is all very cinematic in sound and scope and when you get to the part where they sing, "Two birds give out a song," you have reached sonic nirvana.
"Dear Valentine" – I am a drum snob even though I have no training as a drummer. Some drummers do things that turn my neck into an accordion and cause me great fits of anger. One of the things I hate is a drummer who cannot leave his cymbals alone. The predictable "crash" causes me fits of uncontrollable rage. The perpetual pinging feels like gnats flying around in my face. The persistent patter in "Dear Valentine" won't go down as my favorite thing but it does feel right for the song. It amuses me when an artist will do something I normally hate and I like the song anyway.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
my god...what have i done?
2 - DJRadiohead
The fact you made it all the way through is thanks enough, Saleski.
3 - Mat Brewster
What happened to the DJ flipping the bird picture? That was right up there with Dawn as Jennifer Anniston, or was it Jennifer Anniston as Dawn, I forget. Either way, I need that picture. Of you and the bird, not of Dawn or Jennifer Anniston, not that Dawn and Jennifer Anniston are bad pictures to have. I have blown those pictures up and hung them above my....oh um, I've said too much.
Good review Sir DJ.
4 - DJRadiohead
Sir Brewster, thanks for checking out the screed. I had a brief bout of the paranoia and removed the snapshots from the interweb. I must have forgotten my meds that day--- SHUT UP, I'm typing---! Anyroad, I might bring the picture out now that I seem to have recovered from my odd behavior---I SAID I'M BUSY!!--- Thanks for reading.
5 - Khara
i toally agree, but while you are at it, check out their first 3 albums, Parachute, Goldfly, & Lost & Gone Forever. More acoustic, more bongos, even better than these 2!
6 - DJRadiohead
Khara, glad you found this. I do own all their albums, including the live CD/DVD. I actually prefer these later records to the early ones. I know a lot of fans like the acoustic/bongo stuff better. I like both, prefer the more recent stuff.
Thanks for commenting!