Not that ambivalence ever asked to have poster children — it
\nreally hasn’t made up its mind yet, you see — but if it had, the
\nGin Blossoms would have to be on the short list. From the brightly
\noxymoronic title of their second major-label album
\nCongratulations I’m Sorry<\/i>, to the rich, bouncy guitar hooks
\nthey use to support their often-mournful lyrics, these guys seem
\ndetermined to have it both ways. Nowhere is this more apparent than
\nin this album’s major-video-rotation track “Follow You Down,” whose
\nthoroughly infectious central hook lights up a song about
\nco-dependent depression.<\/p>\n
The results here and elsewhere in this 12-song-plus-intermission
\nset, while sometimes incongruous, are consistently entertaining and
\nwell-executed. The lyrics can lean to self-pity at times, but offer
\nsubtle imagery and sparkling twists of phrase (e.g. “full sail in
\nthe gutter,” “nothing like a bad decision says who you are” and the
\nwhole concept of a “Competition Smile”). It’s also nice to see a
\nband where everybody contributes to the songwriting.<\/p>\n
There are big rewards waiting on the instrumental side, as well.
\nThe fat-and-juicy twin-lead guitars Jesse Valenzuela and Scott
\nJohnson offer up front are supported by sharp ensemble playing,
\nwith instrumental flashes and fills from bassist Bill Leen and
\ndrummer Phillip Rhodes that complement the driving lead riffs of
\nsongs like “Day Job” and “Perfectly Still” smartly without getting
\nin their way. Robin Wilson’s lead vocals stay deep in the mix much
\nof the time, but are plenty strong enough to stand up and be heard
\nwhen they need to be.<\/p>\n
Gin Blossoms may have blown their whole ambivalent image in one
\nrespect, though. In an era when everybody and their sister was
\nhopping on the grunge \/ industrial \/ speed-metal \/ hip-hop \/
\nambient \/ acid-jazz \/ trendy-sub-genre-of-the-week bandwagon, these
\nguys made the gutsy commitment to play straight-ahead, hook-laden,
\nall-guitar rock and roll. Well, except for their nicely executed
\ncountry turn on “Memphis Time;” what was that all about — oh,
\ngeez, these guys really are good at this, aren’t they?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5734],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37482","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gin-blossoms","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37482","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37482"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37482"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}