 Cris Cordero (with Joshua Jones & Randy Lyons) - www.myspace.com/gosgoodsoldiers
Why Can't God Cure The Baby? (released 2007)
Self Produced
I was pleasantly surprised when I first spun this album. I guess I'll chalk that up to the cover art and jacket. The artwork is blrred and hard to read, which would have indicated to me a real low quality recording and likely low quality music, but what a shock! Cris Cordero and company deliver a great indie rock album that has some many different levels to it, I'm already struggling to identify all of the artists that the album is drawing from. The first band that I can suggest as a close comparison would be Pavement. The mid-nineties heavy indie rock sound jumps around all over this album. There is a lot of seemingly sloppy, mixed up guitars and organ work on here, it's drawn out and heavy...the sloppyiness comes from the layering effect of so much happening at once on this album. It's a good thing, in fact a great thing, as it adds tremendous depth to each track. Another band that comes to mind is one of my all time favorite one album bands, the Pseudo Heros. The album that the Pseudo Heros put out contained all kinds of influences, but still held a core sound of punk, well indie punk, but it was incredible. Cris and crew's release here strike the same chord with me... That is, a collection of influences developed into songs that run the gamut of indie, rock, pop and punk. Speaking of punk, perhaps the punkiest of the songs on the album appears two-thirds the away through on "I'm Going Home" Not that this track is less punkier than the rest, it is just a bit of a departure from the rest, because it seems so bright and uplifting compared to the heaviness found on the other tracks. "I'm Going Home" is almost poppy as compared to the other tracks on the album. The guitar work on this track really does shine, alongside the catchy chorus. Clearly a standout track in it's own right. The twelve tracks in thirty-seven minutes featured here, means that Cris and the guys are hitting about three minutes a shot on these tracks; easily allowing them some room on college radio format stations. Fans of the classic indie rock vibe of the early to mid 90s will find that this is a great walk down memory lane. It certainly has brought some great memories back for me. However "I'm Going Home" seems to be an abberation on the album, because no other track reaches that level of intensity. The remainding songs are solid garagey indie rock, that is never bad to hear again and again. -MG |
