Sugarcult - Palm Trees And Power Lines

  by Emma Haigh

published: 13 / 6 / 2004

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Let it be known from this day forth, I Do Not Like Cali-Pop. I just find it bland and uninspired and unimaginative and awful. Something about it causes something in me to whither and die. All hope in the abilities of youth and humanity. It causes my faith in the potential of our species to falter in its tracks and collapse crying. It is a realm of aural hell. 'Palm Trees and Power Lines' is the third effort Santa Barbara, CA outfit Sugarcult, a card-carrying Cali-punk quartet that revels in it’s Cali-niche At best they have audible roots in Green Day (the sole exception to the above rule). At worst they belong to the same as Blink 182 and Eve 6. It’s all the same glob of expelled punk-pop bubblegum you find embedded in the sole of your favourite shoes. Maddeningly predictable lyrics range from the simplistically poor "It’s over, I’m mad at you. It’s over, I’m mad at you" ('Over'), to the profound "December's gone, it came and went. December's gone, it’s came and went," ('Worst December'), to the impossibly hopeful "We could fall apart. We could fall apart" ('Memory'). If lyrics aren’t your bag, then maybe you’ll dig the three chord, thrashy-thrashy, here-we-are-fast-now-we-are-slow/here-we-are-louder-now-we-go-quieter rehash of every other group in this genre. But I didn’t. There are two songs out of the twelve that I would not choose gnawing my own arm from its socket to beat myself about the head over listening. The first is 'Destination Anywhere', which actually demonstrates a degree of effort to move away from repeating the same three chords over and over again, and make a stab at actual melody. The second is 'Champagne', which almost (almost) harkens to the very baby days of Weezer, and that can be nothing short of (almost) beautiful.

Track Listing:-

1 She's the Blade
2 Crying
3 Memory
4 Worst December
5 Back to California
6 Destination Anywhere
7 Champagne
8 What You Say
9 Over
10 Head Up
11 Counting Stars
12 Sign Off

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