Reviewed by James Attlee

An intriguing group this, who've produced some of the most interesting music on the alternative front to come out of America over the last fen years. They don't sound like a California band - they have more in common with the New York club/garage/art school scene that sparked groups like Talking Heads than laid-back West Coast rock. As we've come to expect this is a densely packed canvas, with scarce a gap between sharply contrasting tracks. There's the inner-city funk-sprawl of 'Homeboys', with its graphic description of Gene Eugene's childhood in a low income suburb of LA and loss of a good friend to a random drive-by gunshot. As usual there's lots of guitars from Eugene and six-string collaborator Greg Lawless. There's no drum computers and hardly any synthesizers on this record. Euguene is going for a rawer sound than on their two previous albums, and 'Homeboys' even sees the welcome return of the Fender Rhodes piano to its rightful foreground position. "We got a guitar on the left side, guitar on the right, and the bass in the middle of the mix/I haven't heard a Fender Rhodes this funky since 1976!" sings Gene ecstatically on "This Band Is Our House". As well as the struggle and pain of ghetto life, divorce and such, and the upful celebration of "This Band Is Our House", we get the tender moments of a love song like "Hide Away", featuring a cello solo. That's typical Adam Again - to put the lyricisim of "Hide Away" next to "Bad News On The Radio", the story of someone who's killed a man and is saying goodbye to his girlfriend as the Law arrive. "Now I watch you sleeping/Don't wake up and say goodbye/There's no more as the sirens arrive/Spotlight on the driveway/Bad news on the radio." This is not safe middleclass Christian music. It is a slice of life.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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