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Augustana - All The Stars And Boulevards
- A good rock n'roll album is like a really good steak. They're basic, but they're essential. A mediocre steak is passable if all you're looking for is protein and filler to pass the time, but it's just not the same as a thick, slightly bloody, mouth waterer.
Just as there are plenty of one note teen pop artists (the musical equivalents of Chocodiles... chocolate covered Twinkies for the uninformed) that'll come and go with the tide, there are plenty of rock bands, that really only occupy the spotlight for a few minutes on their way to obscurity (Applebee's steaks, if you will). But then there are the other kind... the authentic steak house filet mignons, and the guys of Augustana are the prime cut. They're basic, but they're finding their way to essential.
Elevating them from touring college circuit band to the pop arena, Augustana's debut effort, All The Stars And Boulevards, is a worthy addition to the stage. They're capable of writing their own well balanced organic music, and their lyrics are smart and educated (I'll explain that one in a minute), much like their admitted influences, Counting Crows and Radiohead.
Their lush instrumentation is reminiscent of Radiohead's early album The Bends, and to their credit as well, the entire album has the original feel of Counting Crows' August And Everything After... notably one of my top five desert island albums.
"Mayfield" is a strong opening track, setting the tone and vibe of the album. Justin South's strong presence on drums is equal to Dan Layus' vocal commitment, and everything and everyone (Josiah Rosen on lead guitar and vocals, and Jared Palomar on bass and keyboards) in between fills out the core with equal balance. They're the FOX news of rock, without the annoying, smug, self-righteous pedantics of Bill O'Reilly.
The strongest songwriting here goes to "Boston", a song whose "educated" lyrics are written in stark ironic contrast to the Boston set TV show Cheers' anthem, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name". It's about a girl so lost, tired and confused in the place she is, she decides to move far away to a place where.. Yep, "no one knows my name" to start over.
It's on this track that you can start to see where producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam) asserts his presence. I'm a big fan of well placed instrumental layering, and O'Brien makes his presence most obvious here with soaring string sections and structural pacing. Classical composer Claude Debussy is reported to have said, "...music is the space between the notes...", and it's the rare occurrence that a rock band understands this, and uses silence as an integral tool as they do here.
The other highlights on this album (and there are really quite a few good songs across the entire album), are the title track "Stars and Boulevards" - a seeming direct homage to Adam Duritz and the gang- and "California's Burning", an intense guitar heavy description of watching a California sunset through the rearview mirror driving east. It's something of a bookend to "Mayfield", even though it's the penultimate track.
You're on your own for desert though. After this steak dinner you're going to be very picky, and a Chocodile won't cut it.
Reviewer: David Fallo
new
Reviewer's Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 3
Added: 13-Feb-2006
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