Look Mexico! To Bed, To Battle (Music Review)
By Andrew Gable • Jun 15th, 2010 • Category: Alternative, Categories, Indie Pop, Music Genres, ReviewsLook Mexico!
To Bed, To Battle
Suburban Home Records
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Links:
Look Mexico! On MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/lookmexico
Look Mexico! On FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Look-Mexico/16634892739
Suburban Home Records: http://www.suburbanhomerecords.com/
Look Mexico! come from the capital of Florida, Tallahassee. Their newest studio effort comes from Suburban Home Records, To Bed, To Battle. This is their second LP and fourth release all told.
To Bed, To Battle comes so close to being a really good album. It really does. Sappy vocals on top of alt-punk music is usually a given for me that I will really like it. The record has some good songs with great parts, but no great songs. It’s very much a music version of the “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls” movie- coming from good roots, expectations high, but falling short. Sigh.
The first track on the LP, called “You Stay. I go. No Following.” Is a strong track, maybe the strongest. The drawn-out chords and keyboards contrast the artistic drumming. The song fits the vocals, which are mostly drawn out like the slide guitars. Slide guitars? Yes. I’m reviewing an alternative rock album with slide guitars. There is a hell after all.
Another track called “Take it Upstairs, Einstein” is not so strong. I think what set it off burning into the deep end was the tail end of the hook, “…my girl says I should read more, but I like playing my guitar.” Really. Sigh. Again. The track is primarily the acoustic guitar and (god- again) the electric slide guitar.
As a whole, the vocals remind me quite a bit of Engine Down (from around 2002′s Demure” with slightly less range. The guitars fall somewhere between The Strokes, Engine Down, Idlewild, and maybe even INXS from around the time of Shabooh Shoobah. The drums stand out as rather imaginative, strong, and well produced. The LP is decent alternative rock for uppity alternative rock fans. There is an impressive number of instruments appearing on the album, showing good skill and variety, and it all ties into a pretty record over all. Slide guitars and even a hint of twang in vocals are almost always a deal killer, though.
RIYL: alternative rock, Strokes, INXS, REM.
Andrew Gable is a 30-something journalism student in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has played in a few local bands and is an avid collector of music. Outside of sharing his opinion with many people who don’t ask for it, he can be found drawing, skateboarding, and drinking copious amounts of coffee at local coffee establishments.
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