Back in August 2001, when I reviewed
Quintessential Honey, the second album from Johnson
Brothers, I exhorted them to never lose their creative spirit. I
liked the fact that I was hearing a band who was willing to take
all styles of music and merge them into something unique –
something that would have A&R people at labels soiling
themselves in shock, because this music didn’t fit a particular
mold.
In the past year, the band – led by vocalist Aaron Pickering –
has undergone some changes, not the least of which is they’ve pared
themselves down to a lean four-piece outfit. Their lates EP,
Uno!, shows that their music has changed as well. Gone are
the funky jams that made
Quintessential Honey such a unique disc to listen to – and,
frankly, I miss that. While this EP is no failure, it does suggest
that Johnson Brothers have moved closer to mainstream… damn.
Granted, there are only five songs on this disc – and one of
these is featured twice, in electric and acoustic versions. And,
granted, their last effort was such a complex work that it took
more than one listen to fully appreciate what Johnson Brothers were
trying to accomplish. So I’m willing to concede that, had
Uno! been longer, I would have had a clearer understanding
of what Pickering and crew were trying to accomplish this time
around.
Ah, but five songs are all I have to work with, and it just
feels like it’s not enough. Things really don’t start cooking for
the band until the third track, the electric version of “A Long
Day,” refueling memories of just how good this band is. The
following track, “(C’mon) Inside,” is also well done, suggesting
the band was starting to get a feel of this new stylistic
shift.
If only they had asserted themselves as strongly right out of
the gate. While the first two tracks, “Head Full Of Stars” and “One
Trick Pony,” are hardly failures, their more outright rock tones
(and abandonment of harmony vocals – at least for the time being)
don’t grab the listener and hold them in the way that Johnson
Brothers are capable of. Sure, the final three tracks (including a
beautiful acoustic rendition of “A Long Day”) make the journey more
than worthwhile, but when you have only 16 minutes of music to
offer, every second is vital.
This isn’t to say that
Uno! isn’t worth your time, or that Johnson Brothers have
made an incorrect career move. But I’m still on the fence as to
whether this is indeed a good move for the band. By giving up the
musical jambalaya that made up their last album, Pickering and crew
come closer to sounding like every other band on the radio today –
and, in all honesty, it was their uniqueness that drew me to them
in the first place.
