THE CHRIS STAMEY EXPERIENCE
A Question of Temperature
Yep Roc
· When the man from the dBs teams up with high-profile pals Yo La Tengo and Caitlin Cary, you can’t stop the rock.
For awhile now, Chris Stamey has devoted more time to producing music than making it. As if to combat that, he has turned out two albums in less than a year and his latest, A Question of Temperature, is almost non-stop rock ’n’ roll. It’s a bit of a surprise coming from the typically jangly Stamey, especially after the relatively poppy Travels in the South released in 2004, but for the most part he pulls it off. With the help of Yo La Tengo, specifically the trademark caterwauling guitar of Ira Kaplan, Stamey and company deliver solid, if standard, rockers.
The problem with the album is that some songs sound like they were stolen rather than written. Aside from the two covers on the album, the derivative grind of "Politician" and the weepy "Plainest Thing" (which borrows a Yo La Tengo chord progression or two) can hardly be called original. Still, it’s "Compared to What" that nearly derails the album. I defy you to listen to this track and not think of "Devil Inside" by INXS. By the time the supergroup starts reworking Yo La Tengo instrumentals into political public-service announcements, the album has run out of steam. Ultimately, A Question of Temperature doesn’t pack the punch that Travels in the Sun did. That record was Stamey’s first solo album in a decade, so clearly he took his time. A scant few months later, he may be wearing himself a bit thin
|
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.