I\u2019m not entirely sure how I became the Vault expert on the Doobie Brothers. I was born three years after they first broke up and became familiar with them through classic rock radio and my dad\u2019s record collection, which I grant you is the time-honored way to discover great artists. But outside of their debut, I\u2019ve been the sole reviewer for this good-time boogie-rock band for our esteemed site. <\/p>\n
More than their individual albums, the hits this band made in the 1970s have endured on all number of compilations, bar band playlists, jukeboxes, bowling alleys, classic rock radio playlists, dentists, you name it. Wherever there is music and a lot of white people\u2014often with beer involved, in some fashion\u2014you will eventually hear \u201cBlack Water,\u201d \u201cListen To The Music,\u201d \u201cRockin\u2019 Down The Highway,\u201d \u201cChina Grove,\u201d \u201cLong Train Runnin\u2019,\u201d \u201cJesus Is Just Alright,\u201d \u201cTakin\u2019 It To The Streets\u201d and\/or \u201cWhat A Fool Believes.\u201d These songs are not deep, but they are catchy.<\/p>\n
Through the \u201980s, \u201990s, \u201900s, and \u201910s, the band slowly lost members but continued to tour and play the hits, occasionally releasing a mostly-ignored new album, the way a lot of \u201970s acts have wound up doing. The latest of these is Libert<\/i>\u00e9, <\/i>the band\u2019s first original album in 12 years and second in 22 years. There have of course been live and compilation albums in that time, but that\u2019s not important here. Of note: when we say \u201cband,\u201d we mean Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons, plus John McFee (who joined up just as the band was breaking up in 1980). None of the \u201970s supporting cast, nor Michael McDonald, make an appearance.<\/p>\n
So the voices of the Doobies are present\u2026 or are they? If you didn\u2019t see the name on the cover, you could be forgiven for hearing this album and thinking it was a Bon Jovi\/Jason Aldean tribute band, with a hint of Springsteen. There\u2019s very little that links this music to the band\u2019s past, which is both a blessing and a detriment. A blessing, because nobody is reaching for past glories, trying to write a hit that sounds like \u201cBlack Water\u201d or anything like that. A detriment, because the band has lost its identity, choosing to write anonymous feel-good pseudo-country anthems. These are pleasant, inoffensive, good-time songs meant to be played on country rock radio next to Luke Bryan or shuffled within a background playlist at a chain restaurant that you barely notice while you chow down on mozzarella sticks and Bud Light.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve long said that the best Doobies songs aren\u2019t necessarily the hits, and digging into their albums will yield a surprisingly melancholy, compelling writing streak that most people never appreciated. But here, there is no such thing. The guys aren\u2019t trying to write hits, but they\u2019re not stretching their creative muscles either, sticking firmly in a middle-of-the-road, mid-tempo, feel-good rut for 12 songs. You won\u2019t remember much of anything when this is over. <\/p>\n
The true highlight is \u201cJust Can\u2019t Do This Alone,\u201d which has some depth and soul and really feels like the first time you\u2019re listening to the same band that made the uniformly excellent \u201cI Cheat The Hangman\u201d so many years ago. But that\u2019s the 10th song on a 12-song album, too little \/ too late to rescue this release. Maybe a couple of these songs get slotted in between the hits on the band\u2019s next state fair and zoo tour, and people will smile and nod along while they wait patiently for \u201cLong Train Runnin\u2019\u201d to start, because that\u2019s about the extent of the ambition here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6972],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-46335","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-doobie-brothers","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46335","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46335"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}