North Hollywood Shootout

It's weird to listen a BT album with 4 or 5 slowtempo songs. It's weird to listen in a BT album just to much synth sounds and "pussy" sounds.

It's weird in a BT album but BT still manages to mixed up and sound great at it. They still manage to get along with rock, with pop, with (some little but still) jam. They try to catch some lost spark since Bastardos, and they succed it, in part.

In part because NHS still feels half way "there". First step, it's sounds more thight than Bastardos, second, is that it's is a diferent way from bastardos but it's like a "return" way, coming back. Very very shy try to set the course toward mixing old BT with new BT. But a try thats at least worth it. Because somewhere in the album I felt old BT trying to emerge. But still lacks the thightness and rock of Straight on till morning and maybe it will never be like it, but maybe it can be better.

The Black Cat logo maybe gone from the artwork of this album (the first BT album ever without it) but is still living in the music, and maybe, who knows, will make Blues Traveler comeback from these Pop Dream but with all the things they have learned from it. This album is in that direction. It gives me hope.

Not only are there are several songs on here that you would absolutely hope to hear from Popper etal, but there are some real surprises. The "free willis" song is a true head nodder with a great bass line throughout, and with Popper's vocal's really distorted, supporting Bruce Willis' spoken word, it probably is the biggest surprise for any Blues Traveler long-time listener. The best song is "orange in the sun," hands-down, but close runner up would be "how you remember it", "beacons" and "you, me and everything". Those three are really the meat of this, in my humble opinion. What's nice about this album is it feels fresh and you really get a sense that they were driven to get to their roots for this production. Very rock and roll... If you ever liked this band, you will enjoy this new album.

As I see it, Blues Traveler reinvented itself spectacularly after the death of their first bassist. Bridge and Truth Be Told are my two favorite BT albums. The addition of the piano, and a change in emphasis I think, allowed for more extensively complex arrangements and details in the studio work that I still find spectacularly inventive (my personal favorite, in terms of production, is You Reach Me from Bridge - there is so much going on in that song, it's difficult to know where to start.)

So, after those two albums, I was really expecting something outstanding from Bastardos!, and what I liked was there a couple of times (After What, Amber Waits, some others) but the experimental edge I think pushed them out of "complicated and interesting" and into "actually, sort of unpleasant and weird."

Well, it would appear they agreed, because now we have North Hollywood Shootout, one of the most ridiculous overcompensations I've ever heard from a band. It's like they listened to Bastardos! and thought "ANYTHING BUT THAT!" and made exactly the opposite - no creativity, no drive, no unexpected sounds... heck, barely anything that could be called "arrangements" in the first place.

The lengthy Amazon review mentions their approach of recording the songs as this time the same way they play live, coming up with arrangements on the spot, and boy can you tell. Especially on the single, "You, Me and Everything", it's plain as day that they came up with a groove they liked and so they just sat down and played it for 4 minutes, and called that a song. It's a fine enough groove, there's just no variety to the song at all.

Even the songs that start off sounding complex and ambitious, Orange In The Sun and The Queen Of Sarajevo, each have sections where suddenly creativity gives way to muttering over top of stereotypical and extremely bare guitar lines. The overall effect is one of listening to a draft of a much better CD, like a progress report halfway through the recording process that they would then go on to legitimately flesh out.

I mean, it's not unpleasant like Bastardos! often was (well, except for one guitar line in How You Remember It that sounds like someone dicking around at guitar center, but I digress), it's just that it's, well, just kind of dull. Repetitive. Lots of chords, with no arrangements; lots of very plain melodies, without harmony; lots of simple grooves that stay the same for the whole entire song. There are more musical ideas in any four songs off of the last few albums than on this entire disc.

Next time, a middle ground would be nice - not unpleasant and bizarre like Bastardos!, not boring and completely uninspired like this one.

North Hollywood Shootout is a really strong record, and along with 2003's Truth Be Told the best Blues Traveler 2.0 album so far. It has everything a BT fan loves and wants: strong rockers such as "The Beacons" or "How You Remember It", great pop songs such as "Love Does", "What Remains" or "Orange In The Sun" and even weird experimental stuff like the final track featuring Bruce Willis - and, of course, Popper's great vocal and harmonica skills. I really enjoy listening to that CD and hope there will be more BT albums of that quality in the future. Highly recommended!

This album is decent, and has a few worthwhile tracks. "forever owed" is good. But what it lacks is ENERGY and EXCITEMENT, I really hate to say it (as I am a HUGE BT fan) but this album is middle of the road, ho-hum boring. WHERE IS THE ROCK????!!!! AND DRUM MACHINE TRACKS?? COME ON GUYS!!! "You and Me..." is not WILD at all. Even the songs that attempt to rock and be loud sound too tame. I have heard them live and its the way this album was recorded that sucks, there is just no ENERGY, maybe the boys were smokin' too much...

If you are just getting in to BT, get the Greatest hits CD or Save His Soul over this mess. Unless you prefer dentist office music to ROCK AND ROLL!!!

OR better yet go see them LIVE, they still put on a hell of a show. We will have to forgive them for these recent misfires, as long as they still play the classics. Love & Greed BABY!!!