Dear Old 97's,
At the risk of sounding like a whiny little bitch, I didn't much care for your most recent studio release, "Satellite Rides."
Judging by the reviews on your web site, I may be the only human in known space who holds this opinion. To be fair, it's a better CD than "Fight Songs," it's predecessor. That particular disc spent about two weeks in rotation before I decided I was never, no matter how many times I played it, going to like a song like "Murder or a Hear Attack." Better to dub "Jagged" and "What We Talk About" onto a compilation disc and move on. No, "Rides" has more going for it. It's less self-conscious - the band plays with much more confidence than was evident on "Songs" - and if all but the slightest hint of your former alt-country ways have been abandoned, like a Stars and Bars gimme cap you find in the trash at a Dartmouth mixer, so be it.
There's nothing wrong with so-called "pop" music. For example (and for those not already sick of "y'allternative" references in popular media), I believe that between Wilco's "AM" and Son Volt's "Trace," the two initial releases by the bands formed following the demise of Uncle Tupelo, "AM" is a fundamentally better album. Not because you can dance to it, but because there's almost a joyous sound of shackles bursting when you put the former into your stereo and the the first chords of "I Must Be High" ring out. Volt's Jay Farrar may be one of the Best He is At What He Does, but what he does is not terribly compelling or original. Jeff Tweedy, Farrar's partner-in-crime with Tupelo, always had more of a pop sensibility anyway. These days, Wilco has built a strong following thanks to the critical praise for "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," while Son Volt has split up, leaving Farrar ro go it solo. Make of that what you will.
Clearly, there are worse things a band can do than assume a more popular pose. All the cries of "sell-out" and "corporate rock" mask the reality that some artists can go on to be much more successful and still maintain at least a modicum of integrity. Still, there's a distinct contrast to the songs on "Wreck Your Life" and "Too Far to Care" versus those on "Satellite Rides" and "Fight Songs." There may still be some gems to be found amidst the new mod sound of "Rides:" "Buick City Complex" and "Up the Devil's Pay" for instance. And no one can say that Rhett Miller isn't one of the more canny lyricists around, Murry Hammond doesn't have a keen sense of country history or a fine ear for harmonies, or that Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples play with anything less than full on to-the-wall balls.
So why does it feel so calculated?
I suppose what doesn't make sense is the idea that power pop has always been the way you guys have wanted to go. If that were the case, why waste time on your first few albums doing covers of Waylon and Bob Wills? Why ask Exene Cervenka to sing "Four Leaf Clover" with you? If songs like the bouncy "King of All the World" are really where your musical heart has been, why bother to write songs like "Timebomb?"
Do you see where I'm going with this? Only an asshole would want his favorite band to toil in obscurity, remaining known only to him and a select few, rather than achieve success. I gather one of the motivating factors for *staying* in a band is money, and if what you're playing isn't in some way popular you may as well hang it up and go back to your cubicle. That being the case, why toy around with country at all? According to your old web page (which is no longer online), Murry was the only real fan of Western music. IIRC, Rhett started as a folkie, Ken was more into classic rock, and Philip was a punk (though I'm not being so blasé as to suggest y'all had no other interests, I'm lumbering towards a point here). Indeed, songs like "Over the Cliff" and "Melt Show" from the earlier albums proved you guys could have just as easily gone down the twangcore road, and it's to your credit that you were able to so deftly weave 'Mats-like elements into your earlier songs.
Plenty of bands change their sound, but you definitely don't hear many people describing U2 as one of the most important bands around anymore. Just the opposite, they're the Stephen King of the music world: people buy their music more out of inertia than anything else, and figure they may get around to listening to it during the weekend while cutting the grass. The difference with them is that I think their change in styles came more out of boredom with their five albums worth of anthemic message music, "Unforgettable Fire" notwithstanding (to say nothing of the critical daisy cutter that was "Rattle and Hum"). Bono et. al., tired of posturing as rock's "serious band," decided to have a little fun, and they did. So what if the music reeked? How many Bentleys does one person need, anyway?
Which is what makes me a little suspicious. Your first album (not the 1993 EP) came out in 1994 - not alternative country's watershed year, but there was still a lot of noise of that ilk being made. As time has stumbled on, more and more of the bands associated with that movement have either broken up or else significantly morphed to the extent that they no longer fit the category. To be fair, a lot of the groups lumped into the "insurgent country" melting pot didn't really belong there to begin with. While the crowds for your first few tours were enthusiastic, if not huge, you guys still had a pretty loyal core following by the time "Too Far Too Care" hit. The recent style change makes sense from a mass-marketing perspective, I suppose. It just seems a shame to turn away so utterly from the sound that made many people take notice of you guys in the first place.
I'd like to call it a coincidence, but I can't help recalling Ryan Adams' snide comments about your "fake Texas accents" on "Hitchhike to Rhome." I even listened to it again the other day and was struck by how hick-ish "Drowning in the Days" sounds compared to anything off the latest album.
I try not to be cynical about shit like this, but circumstantial evidence is sometimes hard to overlook.
And just last year Rob Thomas, Rob freaking Thomas, he of the odious matchbox twenty, was giving you props...and you were publicizing the fact. It's one thing to move past your roots, but you guys seem to be attempting to erase any evidence of their existence, if somewhat reluctantly. You play your new stuff, dutifully, on Leno and Conan, but I've seen the band live recently and there's simply no denying that more energy comes out of an encore performance of "Doreen" than all the songs from the last two albums combined.
So I wish you all the best, and hope everything works out the way you guys want. I'll just be spending my money elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Pete
P.S. One other thing, the mod look doesn't really do it for you guys. I mean, what would Hoss have said?
Bravo, my brother! I felt like that Stars & Bars gimme cap when Fight Songs came out. I listened to two songs on the radio and knew I had been left behind. Oh, well...I've got everything up to there, and I can still play 504 at 11 and sing along in my truck by myself and pretend that they're still out there somewhere.
Although, I wish like hell Murray would move on and do something true to his soul, if he's got it in him. Same for Ken, who at least looked like he enjoyed playing the twangy stuff.