The seventh album by Scott McCaughey’s (the ‘5th’ member of REM) sometimes band that on this occasion features, amongst others, Peter Buck, Kelly Hogan, John Wesley Harding, Morgan Fisher and all of Wilco (on 2 tracks only).
A belter it is too despite the rather dodgy opener, Beatles pastiche ‘Rifle Called Goodbye’ that immediately has you thinking “Rutles!” (similarly on ‘My Life As A Creep’). But all that nonsense is cast aside by track 2, the wonderfully punky ‘Aw Shit Man’ that cruises along on a two chord riff and snotty middle–age lyrics “..you’re just another fucker with a mid-life crisis”. Go Scott, sing it for us all man!!
They get the Beatlesque stuff exactly right on ‘Out There On The Maroon’ with its familiar riff and ascerbic lyrics “It’s not pretty when your best friend’s a saloon”. ‘Twilight Distillery’ is a lovely slice of Byrdsian pop, while ‘Leftover Life To Kill’ takes the pop psychedelia to the limit with swirling organ, swooping guitar and fragile harmonies. ‘Cigarettes Coffee and Booze’ takes up the country mantle, what else with a title like that? Pedal steel greasing the path to guaranteed heartbreak. ‘Original Luke’ rocks and chugs its way to the album’s conclusion like a perfectly natural hybrid of Cheap Trick and Rockpile.
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Elsewhere, the Wilco-assisted tracks stand out, especially the sinisterly bouncy ‘With A Gun’. Quite an eclectic collection of songs that never-the-less hang together to make a surprisingly coherent and enjoyable album.
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