Most people probably consider the Spin Doctors to be the answer
\nto a trivia question about ’90s alternative music. After setting
\nthe genre on its ear with their quirky but catchy style of funky
\nalternative rock on “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and “Two Princes”,
\nand with lead singer Chris Barron’s pseudo-hippie approach to the
\nmusic, the band seemed to be a shot in the arm that alternative
\nrock needed.<\/p>\n
Then came the stinkburger
\nTurn It Upside Down<\/i>, which was so bad that it made me lose
\ncomplete interest in this band. A shuffling of band members and an
\nalmost unheard-of third album later, they seemed to be doomed to
\nmusical limbo.<\/p>\n
But, wait – not so fast. Now comes their fourth studio effort
\nHere Comes The Bride<\/i>, and not only have the Spin Doctors all
\nbut abandoned the sound that brought them fame and got old
\novernight, but they’ve put out a pretty damn good album – something
\nI honestly never expected to say about this disc prior to giving it
\na few spins in the CD player.<\/p>\n
Barron and crew (I’m working off a white label promo, and I
\ndon’t have a listing of current band personnel) wisely don’t try to
\nrecapture the magic that struck them in the early ’90s; instead,
\nthey choose to plow a new musical path which still keeps a bit of
\nthe goofiness that endeared the band to millions.<\/p>\n
What I’m afraid of is that radio will jump on those moments of
\nsilliness, like “Gorilla Boy”. The problem with doing this is
\ntwofold: first, this is hardly the strongest material on
\nHere Comes The Bride<\/i>; second, it’s hardly characteristic of
\nwhere the band is today.<\/p>\n
Even on the title track, which does start out with the strains
\nof the wedding march, Barron and crew quickly turn the track into
\nsomething more significant, and by combining solid songwriting with
\na more solid rock base in the playing, put their money where their
\nmouths are. Even the tango-like qualities of “Vampires In The Sun”
\nhold up well because, despite the different approach to the music,
\nthey take a more serious approach to their craft.<\/p>\n
What hammers things home for the Spin Doctors are tracks like
\n“The Man,” “The Bigger I Laugh The Harder I Cry,” “WOW” and “Gone
\nMad,” songs that all dare the listener to accept them for what they
\nare, not the band’s past. Looked at in that light, the bulk of
\nHere Comes The Bride<\/i> is exceptional.<\/p>\n
There still are a few weak moments (“Dodging Assassins” just
\ndoesn’t seem like they put as much effort into it as they could
\nhave), and the “hidden” track is a wasted effort in goofiness, but
\nHere Comes The Bride<\/i> does something that you never would
\nhave expected from the Spin Doctors: it challenges you to take them
\nseriously. After all, you don’t want to blow your second chance at
\nthe spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6396],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39116","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-spin-doctors","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39116","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=39116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39116"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}