{"id":39885,"date":"2006-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/major-lodge-victory\/"},"modified":"2006-08-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-14T00:00:00","slug":"major-lodge-victory","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/major-lodge-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Lodge Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just how good is it to hear the driving drums, surging chords and yearning vocals that signal the return of star-crossed 90s jangle-rock icons the Gin Blossoms<\/a>?\u00a0 For this listener at least, it\u2019s like somebody hit rewind and started summer all over again.<\/p>\n

Of course, I can already hear the first knock from the \u201ccritics\u201d — \u201cthey sound just like before.\u201d\u00a0 Well, *yeah*\u2026 they sounded GREAT before.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the \u201cnothing new\u201d slap just isn\u2019t the case.\u00a0 True, in the early going Major Lodge Victory<\/em> does recall the classic 90s Blossoms sound, complete with twin-engine guitars polished to a potent sheen by producer-in-residence John Hampton.\u00a0 But this is a different GBs album for a different time.\u00a0 After an early history dogged by turmoil and tragedy, and an early sound that juxtaposed fat, propulsive guitar lines with downbeat lyrics, this disc dares to ask\u00a0if\u00a0the world is ready for a *happy* Gin Blossoms album.<\/p>\n

Granted, the opener has that familiar\u00a0ambivalent feel, what with the guys \u201cLearning The Hard Way\u201d over a ripping good riff.\u00a0 Taking into account\u00a0classicist\u00a0GB-isms such as\u00a0\u201cCounting up the hours \/ For the perfect time to leave,\u201d this one\u00a0would indeed fit right in alongside the melancholy bounce of \u201cHey Jealousy\u201d or \u201cFollow You Down.\u201d\u00a0 Even when some aspects reflect past glories, though, the music here feels punched up with an energy that\u2019s more light than dark.\u00a0 \u201cCome On Hard\u201d might have emerged as a thundering self-indictment in the old days; here, when lead vocalist Robin Wilson sings \u201cI promise I won\u2019t hurt you anymore,\u201d it feels risky but ultimately hopeful.<\/p>\n

The sunnier sound\u00a0here coincides with\u00a0a larger role for guitarist\/harmony vocalist Jesse Valenzuela, who pulls a co-producer credit in addition to writing the bulk of these songs, several with Sue Sandberg and\/or the Rembrandts\u2019 Danny Wilde.\u00a0 Valenzuela\u2019s harmonizing with Wilson has never sounded better, whether on slower numbers like the gorgeous ballad \u201cSomeday Soon\u201d or on faster cuts like the positively bubbly \u201cHeart Shaped Locket\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Play Two.\u201d\u00a0 Also keenly felt on songs like the latter is the power-pop influence of <\/city><\/place>Wilson\u2019s side project the\u00a0Poppin\u2019 Wheelies.<\/p>\n

Wilson and Valenzuela, who in the past have rarely co-written, do it twice here with strong results.\u00a0 \u201cThe End Of The World\u201d is a well-arranged, keening ballad, while \u201cLong Time Gone\u201d mines the classic GBs guitar-pop sound while featuring some of the pair\u2019s strongest harmonies.<\/p>\n

Later on, \u201cCurious Thing\u201d offers a blast of\u00a0textbook verse-chorus Marshall Crenshaw power-pop, complete with call-and-answer vocals, and \u201cFool For The Taking\u201d delivers an extra-punchy Replacements-on-a-sugar-high feel.\u00a0 The album closes with the mid-tempo \u201c<\/state><\/place>California Sun,\u201d featuring lead vocals by Valenzuela and a lush surf sound.\u00a0 Yes, you heard right, this tune is closer to the Beach Boys than the downbeat old-school\u00a0GBs, but it\u2019s a quality piece of work, and makes about as much musical sense as the tongue-in-cheek country tunes the Blossoms threw in toward the end of both of their previous albums.<\/p>\n

For the longtime fan, it\u2019s hard at times to keep from missing the aggressive guitar work that lit up both New Miserable Experience<\/i> and Congratulations I\u2019m Sorry<\/i>; this set gives lead guitarist Scotty Johnson scant\u00a0moments to shine.\u00a0 He manages to plant one sweet solo in \u201cCome On Hard,\u201d but this time out the GBs are more about hooky choruses than blazing guitars.\u00a0 Bassist Bill Leen\u2019s presence feels similarly understated, though he does contribute one of the disc\u2019s finest ballads, the melancholy \u201cJet Black Sunrise.\u201d<\/p>\n

After ten years of waiting for the follow-up to Congratulations I\u2019m Sorry<\/em>, though, it feels petty\u00a0to quibble about such things.\u00a0 A set of mostly upbeat songs from a group of years-more-mature guys might not be as immediately compelling as the uber-angst that surrounded this band in younger days, but there\u2019s more than enough excitement here to suggest the Blossoms have a long road still to run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5734],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39885","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gin-blossoms","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39885","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=39885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39885"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39885"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}