 |
KNOCK KNOCK
Smog
(Drag City)
Knock Knock gets in your sinuses and sits there, making you feel weird and lonely.
The opening bars line up as a wistful little folk song with Leonard Cohen-style violins, slowly building but never quite getting anywhere, pleading, kind of desperately, "Let's move to the country ... just you and me."
The next song, Held, is more rock 'n' roll, or at least alt-country, whatever that is, and it leads smoothly into the very sad, killer River Guard, whose lyrics have a powerful sting like Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues, and indeed they're about the same subject: prisoners and their constant battle with judgment, even after their sentences are served.
"We are constantly on trial," singer Bill Callahan moans, his voice soft, but with a hint of meanness.
The two meaty "pop" tracks, Cold Blooded Old Times and Hit the Ground Running, deserve radio play beyond the college stations, especially the first song with its aggressive tempo. Hit the Ground Running is a reprise to the opening track and comes at you like the last breath of Matthew Sweet's theme album, Girlfriend: A mess has been made, but there's always tomorrow. I Could Drive Forever is beside the word "haunting" in the dictionary. Well, it's not really, but it might be on some future CD-ROM version.
All told, Knock Knock is a slightly cerebral work, some of the ideas requiring a bit of thought before you can snap your fingers to them. Thus, if you're looking for the latest bippy Latin dance album, dig elsewhere. This is the kind of record that warms your ears in the portable player when you have a long, cold walk ahead of you and dying's on your mind.
Track Listing
1.Let's Move to the Country
02.Held
03.River Guard
04.No Dancing
05.Teenage Spaceship
06.Cold Blooded Old Times
07.Sweet Treat
08.Hit the Ground Running
09.I Could Drive Forever
10.Left Only With Love