Ravishers
The debut album from Oregon’s Ravishers is a great example of how to introduce yourself into the music business: produce a clean, well-written album that drives people to your live performances. As a dozen tracks will tell you, this duo is obsessed with love, life, and more love. So if you wear black nail polish or kick the hacky sack back and forth during lunch, this disc might not be for you. The opening track, “I’m Him,” has enough swagger to keep the audience engaged well into the second track, a song entitled “You Have It.” This tune attempts an augmented drum beat and driving single-key on a piano as the layer for singer Dominic Castillo to seduce over while the instrumentation feels like Spoon B-sides.
There isn’t anything technically incorrect about the music being performed, or even the point of the lyrics and songwriting, but something keeps the majority of this album from sticking to the mucus membrane inside your skull. Maybe it is a good thing that saccharine, fabricated hooks don’t float to the top of your subconscious (like other bands in this genre), but Ravishers need something to get them heard in a 21st Century where adult contemporary has a deep bench. Lightheartedness only goes so far and the market this band is attempting to reach might not be the same group looking for unsigned bands from the Northwest to entertain them.
Fans of Michael Bublé will probably find Castillo irresistible and charming, which is deserved. Those looking for the sultry Maroon 5 style will be disappointed, as will anyone else looking for a pulse halfway through the record when the album really starts getting slow (with the exception of the standout "My Thoughts Are Killers"). Most tracks never eclipse the four minute mark, which calls into question the musical proficiency of the band. This is more evidence that fans of a “complicated” or intricate sound may feel uninterested within hearing a few tracks.
You might be better off sticking with a band that cements themselves into the musical landscape, like Cold War Kids, who provide a similar rhythm with a more memorable sound and distinctive vocal style. That being said, as soon as a one of the tracks off of their self-titled album appear in some romantic comedy with Catherine Heigl or Jennifer Aniston, I’m sure America will fall in love with Ravishers.