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.
"Dear Valentine" wraps a great chorus inside the harmonies of "Jesus on the Radio" and the jangle pop of "Amsterdam." No wonder I love it.
I am dismissive of pop music in my columns and in conversation because of what pop music has become. In a perverse way, Guster is one of those bands that makes it worse. This is what pop music could be: hooks and choruses and harmonies and sentiments rather than silly sentimentality. Pop music sucks but it shouldn't and doesn't have to. Guster is living proof.
By the way, those numbers in the parentheses above reflect the number of times I listened to each of those songs while writing this installment of Confessions of a Fanboy. Become a better person, save the children, buy some Guster.
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!