Lover! – No Dreams Please (Music Review)
By Andrew Duncan • Dec 7th, 2009 • Category: Categories, Indie Pop, ReviewsLover!
No Dreams Please
Big Legal Mess Records
Rating: 3 out of 5
I can see it now on someplace like http://www.superseventies.com/greatestalbumcovers.html or http://lpcoverlover.com/. With a picture of the band in front of some kind of neutral background with the band name in bold letters, just like those great ‘70s platters, the word “Lover!” screams out of the cardboard cover.
In reality, the album cover to No Dreams Please looks more like something that fell out of an Estrus assembly plant or a Sloppy Seconds typographical wet dream.
Lover! is a marriage between ‘70s garage rock and ‘60s melodic power pop, and No Dreams Please is everything and nothing you would expect from Rich Crook.
Those who are not familiar with Crook may be more familiar with the name Jay Reatard and his involvement not only in The Reatards but also Lost Sounds, two Memphis garage punk underground staples.
The EP starts out like a jangly station wagon roadtrip back to Beach Boys melodic methods and gruffy sounds that stemmed from bands like The Turtles and The Animals.
The shindig does not really pick up until “Fell In Love,” a barn burner of a rocker that sounds like Crook wants to kick Marc Bolan in the face and make up his own rules. But most of this EP lies between the poppy slickness of Ash and the power rock trip out of Sloan. And that’s not a bad thing, but I just expected and hoped to experience more grit out of Crook.
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Andrew Duncan is a journalist who has migrated to the forces of academia. He has written for various publications including Chord, Heckler, Readyset...Aesthetic, and a vast array of alternative press contributions. When not roaming the streets of Indianapolis, he is either addicted to KXCI, making music, or striving to watch every film listed on IMDB.
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