Keep It Together [Enhanced, Import]

EVERY SONG IS GREAT!

I urge you to get this CD.

The bright spots are numerous and the album is enjoyable. The record has a clean mix to it that when done well comes off in pure guitar peel-offs but when done poorly becomes a mess of studio overdubbing.

The highlights are "Diane", "Careful", "Ramona", and "Come Downstairs and Say Hello". The first single "Amsterdam" shines except for an oddly simple, power chord chorus. "Backyard" is close to being a subtle favorite were it not for some weak experimentation with dissonance. Yes, certain notes sound very bad together, lets accept it and stop ruining potentially good tracks.

"Come Downstairs and Say Hello" may be the best song on the record. Though it starts in slow winding fashion it seems to follow a musical and lyrical progression which ends in a classical almost galluping Guster sound. Despite the slow begining, the song maintains its musical interest and weight throughout and its end only serves as a pleasant and logical completion of the begining.

The true disappointments are infact not totally unredeemable. "Homecoming King" is musically fairly catchy but the lyrics are as reprensable as some of Jonh Mayer's weakest efforts. It is clearly a bitter coda to the people who made fun of these boys in highschool. The image of "Homecoming King" is trite and about as smart as all the word play on an O-Town record. "Jesus On The Radio" is clearly supposed to be an example of musical growth but pretty much flops under the weight of being a really bad song. The same goes for "Red Oyster Cult" whose supposed clever title only the defaces the cow-bell friendly band name on which it plays. Another concern is the striking similarity between the opening chords of "Careful" and the chorus of The Cure's "In Between Days".

The album on a whole was enjoyable and in places bordering on brillance befitting the long production and recording period. Saddly the album often seems to lose itself in a sea of production hinging on guitar and vocal overdubs. It is worth a purchase and I enjoy supporting the band but the record fails in places and ways that the previous three have not. It also does manage to succeed in different ways that make it an interesting and valuable purchase. "Keep it Together" simply does not capture the simple, pure, brillance of "Lost and Gone Forever" or the rugged clairity of "Goldfly" and "Parachute". Nor does the latest release truely establish new ground. Caught between a formula that works and new musical interests the record reflects the tension and a prolonged studio stint.