Trainwreck Riders - The Perch
by Daniel Cressey
published: 13 / 8 / 2009
Label:
Alive Naturalsound
Format: CD
intro
Off-kilter, but welcoming country pop on third album from San Francisco-based group, the Trainwreck Riders
If you’re looking for some American guitar-driven, end-of-summer country-pop you could do far worse than the Trainwreck Riders. Theirs is a lazy drawl that drifts over the melodic faintly-bluegrass guitar work, gently maudlin and yearning. ‘Safety Of A Back’ is a soaring country rocker, with the riders reminding us that “you must always speak the truth, hard as that might seem to you”. This smoothly takes us into the next song, 'The Weight of the Day', where they lament living on a “deadend street where the view is endless but there’s nothing to see”. This slightly downbeat approach to things and the occasionally depressive verse is counterbalanced by a musical sensibility that while it may be more positive in outlook never jars and crucially it never comes over as ‘woe is me’. Lyrically and musically they may tend more towards easy country than punk confusion or thundering guitars and this dovetails nicely with the laid back feel of the whole album. Underlying this though is something of a rock edge. This may not be brutal music but it has been steeped in rock, producing a nicely post-grunge take on Beach Boys style Americana. The opening half of 'The Perch' is infused with enough energy to pull you though the whole album. And if individual song sometimes falter, each track flies by so swiftly its hard not to go along for the ride. Like this year’s bouts of sunshine 'The Perch' may not be remembered forever but it is surely a welcome sideways look at the world.
Track Listing:-
1 Safety Of A Back2 Weight Of The Day
3 Don't You Know
4 Chug Along
5 Upon The Losing End
6 Julia
7 Tomorrow's Gonna Change It All
8 Livin' Daylight
9 Three To The Clouds
10 Rumble At The Revolution Café
11 Trainwreck Heart
12 I Saw Your Eyes
13 Everything & Anything
Label Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/AliveNaturalsoundRecordshttp://www.alive-records.com/
https://twitter.com/AliveRecords
https://instagram.com/alivenaturalsound/
https://www.youtube.com/user/JIMalive1
reviews |
Lonely Road Revival (2007) |
Flawed, but promising debut album from shambling San Francisco-based indie rock quartet, Trainwreck Riders |
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