From the prairies of the what? Can the prairie-dogs swim? In order to ensure that the metaphor stays apt, will Steel Train be fitting junior lifejackets to the mongooses of the prairie so that they can enjoy the twilight (and indeed the twilight tales?) from said sea-based areas? Someone tell me what is going on? Why is an alt-country album suddenly under the banner of punk music? I’m all for bands innovating and splicing genres, but this isn’t a case of Steel Train making an album that has the odd country influence or theme, they’ve just made a sub-Wilco, annoyingly trite bunch of songs that are so inoffensive they make Wizadora look like Dr Mengele.
‘Road Song’ and ‘Tickle Your Toes’ are fairly enjoyable tracks but the pace is so neanderthally slow that by the time anything interesting (like, say, a chord change) takes place you’re reaching for the skip button in the vain hope of finding something a little more substantial. It’s just so painfully slow since there’s so much emphasis on the supposed gorgeousness of the tracks that the band forgot to include any personality whatsoever. Blandness becomes an art form, and the most musically interesting parts of the album are the little bits of silence between songs.
I’m sure this will have its legions of fans queuing up to sing its praises, but the fact remains that this is dull beyond belief. And why the hell is Drive Thru releasing it?
Ben