Prior to the release of their second album, the members of
\nHootie & The Blowfish found themselves facing this question:
\n“How do we top ourselves?”<\/p>\n
After all, they have one of the best-selling debut albums in
\nhistory.
\nCracked Rear View<\/i> spawned no less than four hit singles and
\nsold over 13 million copies, and earned the former bar band two
\nGrammy Awards, including one for Best New Artist. (Some consider
\nthis award the kiss of death – who remembers Men At Work? Marc
\nCohn?)<\/p>\n
Now that their second album,
\nFairweather Johnson<\/i> has been out for some time, the members
\nof the band may be asking themselves: “Where did we go wrong?”<\/p>\n
It’s not that it’s a bad effort – in fact, had it not been for
\nCracked Rear View<\/i>, it may have done quite well. The problem
\nis quite simple, and is the same problem that has plagued many
\nwinners of the Best New Artist Grammy: stagnation. The material on
\nFairweather Johnson<\/i> sounds like they could be leftovers from
\nthe
\nCracked<\/i> sessions. Simply put, there is no originality on
\nthis one<\/p>\n
You could hear it from the debut single, “Old Man And Me”.
\nDarius Rucker and crew were just coming off a hit with “Time,” one
\nof the best songs off of
\nCracked<\/i>. Instead of following it up with a similar-sounding
\nsong, they pick one with a more electric tone to it (though I will
\nadmit I like the addition of piano on this one). The song did not
\nstand out like many of Hootie’s better songs, and was quickly
\nforgotten.<\/p>\n
Of the other two singles released to this point, only “Sad
\nCaper” stands out, and is an intriguing little song. The other
\nsingle, “Tucker’s Town,” is a poor choice for a single, as well as
\na song that is just not that good.<\/p>\n
As for the rest of the album, the remaining cuts tend to blend
\ntogether in an unrecognizable haze. Did you just listen to “Be The
\nOne” or “Fool?” “When I’m Lonely” or “So Strange?” Probably the
\nonly song that does stand out is “She Crawls Away,” which could
\nprobably be released as a single with moderate success.<\/p>\n
\nFairweather Johnson<\/i> is not an easy listen; it took me three
\nattempts to get through the entire disc in one sitting. It’s not a
\ngood album, it’s not a bad album… it’s just an album. And this
\nmakes all the difference between a 13 million smash hit and a 2
\nmillion disappointment. (In their defense, the members of Hootie
\n& The Blowfish admitted they didn’t expect this release to sell
\nas many as
\nCracked<\/i>. At least they recognized the wall they were coming
\nup against.)<\/p>\n
If Hootie & The Blowfish are to thrive in the ruthless music
\nindustry, they will need to re-think their musical approach a
\nlittle bit and see if they can adapt to the tastes of their
\naudience. To misquote the late Jerry Garcia, listening to
\nFairweather Johnson<\/i> is a bit like eating licorice – you
\neither hate it or you love it very much. Hootie & The Blowfish
\nhaven’t made me rethink my eating habits… yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5695],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-35571","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hootie-the-blowfish","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35571"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35571"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}