FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved
| CD Review by Mike Bell BUCKCHERRY • Debut from much-hyped L.A. rawk quintet. Okay, here we go. The attempted resuscitation of the perceived dead beast we’re told is true rock ’n’ roll. Administer the sex and the drugs and a healthy reverence for the New York Dolls and The Black Crowes and – voila! It, and we, have all been saved. Um... no. The three-dressed-up-as-a-69 that is Buckcherry is one of the most Aspartame incarnations of modern rock to be foisted upon our ears since Guns ’N’ Roses were rescued from their L.A. bar band existence in order to elicit a collective cringe with their 12-minute white trash love ballads. Whoa. Deja vu. Despite the clumsy drug references, tattooed shirt sleeves and insistence from frontman Joshua Todd that he’s "dangerous," Buckcherry are the sissy slap equivalent of a rock band. There is nothing sexy, threatening or testicular about the music on Lit Up. Weak guitars, banal life-lesson lyrics and a less throaty Chris Robinson vocal delivery from Todd snuff out any hint of a pulse the classic song structures and Cheap Trick melodies allude to. Buckcherry won’t, if it is indeed dead, bring the beast back to life. Turn in its grave – well, that’s another story. 2/5 |
| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |