I can’t remember the last time I heard a CD that really made my
\njaw drop in excitement. This is what happened when I first heard
\nthe latest CD from the Nashville rock band The Shazam. Oh, I have
\nheard plenty of excellent, well-crafted CD’s lately, but not one
\nthat really got my heart racing like this one. Their debut CD was a
\nwonderful slice of hard-edged power pop sounding like a cross
\nbetween Cheap Trick and The Replacements. Now this second CD,
\nGodspeed The Shazam<\/i>, ups the ante by showing both musical
\nand songwriting growth by leaps and bounds.<\/p>\n
On the musical side, it’s as if the band listened a lot to late
\n60’s Beach Boys and early 80’s XTC and Rain Parade before recording
\ntheir new CD, as they have developed a quirky, somewhat psychedelic
\nsound. They have somehow done this without losing the edge that
\nmade the debut CD so good. For example, “RU Receiving” sounds like
\nCheap Trick doing a cover of the early XTC song “Are You Receiving
\nMe?” managing to capture the essence of two very different bands
\nbeautifully with no musical whiplash. No small feat.<\/p>\n
Their Brian Wilson influence is very evident on songs like
\n“Calling Sydney” bringing an unlikely rock instrument like the
\ntympani drums into the fold. And “Sparkleroom” has overt references
\nto Wilson and his Beach Boys both sonically and in the chorus with
\nthe lyric “Come on surfer girl.” Of course, not being a ’60s band,
\nthey inject these songs with a bit of cynicism.<\/p>\n
The Shazam also displays a very silly side to their music.
\n“Chipper Cherry Daylily” is a very weird sendup on psychedelic
\nmusic recalling David Bowie at his strangest. “City Smasher” is a
\nharder edged curiousity displaying an almost Monty Python-like
\nsense of humour. These two songs may be a little over the top, but
\nthey do show a lot of imagination. Producer Brad Jones does a great
\njob making every song on the CD sound unique.<\/p>\n
However,
\nGodspeed The Shazam<\/i> isn’t just about great arrangements. The
\nShazam’s lead singer and songwriter Hans Rottenberry has written
\none of the best songs I’ve heard in a while in “Super Tuesday,”
\nusing the political primaries as a metaphor for a sagging
\nrelationship. He also manages to drop the cynicism for the earnest
\nbut clever love song “Some Other Time.” The midtempo ballad “The
\nStranded Stars” also shows Rottenberry’s tender side as well.<\/p>\n
The Shazam finish the CD with two very different type of songs:
\na moody piece called “Better World” which shows they listen to Big
\nStar as well, and the Replacements-like rocker “Gonna Miss Yer
\nTrain,” which is there to remind the listeners that they haven’t
\nforgotten how to do a straight rock song.<\/p>\n
In short,
\nGodspeed The Shazam<\/i> is an impressive tour de force that has
\na little something for every pop fan. Very rarely have I come
\nacross a CD with such creativity all the way through. It is really
\na shame that they have gone unnoticed by the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":25402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6322],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36608","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-shazam","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36608","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36608"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36608"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}