Apr
04
2007

No More Beautiful World

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 02:24:33 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Tempe, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers)
After several failed attempts to order No More Beautiful World through Peacetime Goods, I came across a torrent of the album. Which will certainly tide me over until I'm hooked up with a real copy of the CD. I'm kinda happy about it, given that when I first heard the e-card tracks at the start of February I decided I was definitely going to pre-order the album and get it right when it came out. At the end of the day, getting to hear it 2 weeks after it was released (March 2007) ain't too bad.

On listening to it however, the songs which I've come to not mind (Hello New Day, Noisy Head) which I hoped were to be the low points of the album. As it turns out, they're the highlights, more or less.

I love Maybe We Should Fall In Love, Andele is as expected great, Controband is pretty good. The rest of the album is varies in degrees of not that great. Listening to it, Katie and I thought that the start of the album had to be the not so great part, and the second is where it'd pick up. Misguided thought, as the start of the album is actually better than the second half.

Particularly nausiating is the reuse of "The good guys and the bad guys never work past noon around here" from Mexico and "Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream". Not to mention the beginning of Plenty. Umm, guys, Bury My Heart At The Trailer Park has already been done. Very sad and disappointing that it's apparently too hard to write new lyrics and riffs. The "cars break down and people break down..." line being used in both Fonder & Blonder and Down Together was cool - the reuse of Mexico in Wake Up Call is just sad!

When ignoring Wake Up Call, I can accept Lemons as the Mexician / mariachi song on the album, but already having heard Wake Up Call two songs earlier, it's hard not to cringe. Roger's mexican influence was always such a cool part of the Peacemakers and Refreshments, but on this album - god it really falls apart and sounds ridiculous.

Certainly what I also noticed was the end of the era - up until now, all the records have the uncanny pattern of a pinnicle rock song, and a / the ballad which is arguably the best track on the album:

Honky Tonk Union: Beautiful Disaster / Green & Dumb
Sonoroan Hope & Madness: Colorblind Blues / Bufallo
Americano!: Americano! / Your Name On A Grain Of Rice

No More Beautiful World continues the trend with the pinnical rock track in Andele, but the ballad the is the best song on the record is completely absent.

If this album had come out around the time that Live At Billy Bob's, it would be easier to just say that finally Roger's made a not so great album, which given the run since Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy in 1996 was bound to happen at some point. However, it's really hard to take that we've waited over 3 years for a studio album, and it's this dismall. For the most part, with the exception of a few good songs, it feels to me as a "it's time to make a new album, we have 3 new songs, let's write 11 more this week and record them".

I could go on to no end with negativity, which is kinda pointless, and maybe the album will grow on me, it's happened before, but certainly the first listen was quite cringe worthy. Especially since around this time last year I questioned new songs (Captain Surburbia, Mexicosis) and the future of the band, and then got over that in the second part of the year, and had actually been anticipating the album, and even more after hearing Hello New Day, Maybe We Should Fall In Love and Contraband at the start of February, only to be left feeling like I did this time last year.
Now Playing: Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Contraband

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