I was first introduced to the three piece band Guster about three years ago. Having formed at Tufts University here in Massachusetts, and having developed an intensely loyal fan base, Guster began garnering an awful lot of local acclaim from the two major Boston daily newspapers, who praised the group's harmonies, melodies, and their "no sticks" drumwork.
It was that last part that kind of grabbed me more than anything. And so I took out their major label debut, Lost and Gone Forever, from my local library, and I immediately was drawn in. More than anything, the band's songs had hooks that were just so memorable and so gorgeous. But it wasn't mindless pop fluff, they were songs with solid, clever lyrics.
That being said, it's not as if Guster became a favorite band or anything. While I enjoyed Lost and Gone Forever, I didn't really feel the urge to go out and grab their previous independent releases, Parachute and Goldfly.
So when the band finally released their follow up to Lost and Gone Forever, (after their record label, Sire, folded, they had to search for a new label, ultimately signing up with the Reprise subsidiary Palm Pictures) Keep It Together, earlier this year, I didn't pay it much attention, mostly due to the tepid reviews that most of the press gave it. But when I saw it sitting in the "new release" bin at the same library, I couldn't resist. I wish I had listened to the tepid reviews a bit more.
That's not to say Keep It Together is a particularly bad album. There are a couple of tracks I find myself really drawn to, but ultimately, there just isn't enough here that really reaches out and grabs me the way Lost and Gone Forever did.
Many hardcore fans of the band are decrying this record because of the band's move to a more standard drum kit for some of the tracks on this record. Personally, the move doesn't really bother me, it's hardly noticable to a more casual fan of the band's material such as myself.
The track that stands out most for me is Careful, a song with one of the faster rhythms on the record, not to mention the best vocal hook. Over a jangly guitar rhythm, Ryan Miller sings "I'm ringing all the warning bells, careful or you'll hurt yourself, others lie lie lie, they adore you, I'll be the one to tell you, careful or you'll hurt yourself, gonna try try try til the morning comes." His voice sounds so good on this track, very smooth.
Ramona, meanwhile, is a deliberate little pop song that nearly eclipses Careful's own lofty heights. I love how the band keeps the pace the same throughout the song, it makes the song sound that much more focused and determined. In addition, the title track is a fun little number, although it doesn't come close to being the songs Careful or Ramona are.
Other than that however, and you'll be hard pressed to find much to get excited about. Both Amsterdam and Red Oyster Cult (the title is the most clever thing about that song) have a bit of musical bite to them, but ultimately, they feel out of place on an album that so often fails to push the volume past the halfway mark it seems (as an extra note, it would be like hearing Coldplay doing Even Flow or something, it just wouldn't fit).
And I don't want to confuse the reader, because Guster has, in the past, pulled off being a melodic pop/rock band very well while never pushing the tempo or the rhythm. But songs like Jesus on the Radio and Come Downstairs and Say Hello seem to drag on ad finitum.
While Guster makes a valiant attempt at a diversified record here, ultimately the songs kind of crumple under their own weight. The lack of hooks is disturbing given how good the band is at writing them. If longtime fans forgot the ridiculous "this album sucks because they used a full drum kit" argument, and stuck to the theory that the album wasn't very good because the songs on it aren't very good, they'd save some face.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.