What Obits does is rehash old-timey rock and the roll in the spirit of The Rolling Stones. Now, I’m actually a fan of the Stones. And as much as I want to like these guys, their music feels false to me. Each bit of energy they put in sounds unproductive.
There’s not a lack of talent here. All of the songs show off the fact that they are veterans from various other bands like Edsel. What I’m concerned about is how forgettable most of this is. Sure, having a guilty pleasure of redundant garage rock isn’t a bad thing. As a result of the glut of these kinds of bands, I feel that the group ought to try harder to leave their own imprint on the music. I can hear the potential for a better approach, for stronger songs.
Actually I liked parts of the album. Hearing the song “Run” made me re-listen to the album to see if I heard other bits in the album like it. The singer sounds more natural to me for reasons I can’t exactly pinpoint. Everything in this song works for me. “Widow of My Dreams” would be another pick of mine; I like how the bass snakes through the song. It sounds fantastic, and again, I wish the rest of the album did it for me like this one.
Basically, my problem with this is it rehashes so much from garage rock and various other bands that it fails to create its own identity. I’ve seen them live before, opening for Polvo, and I liked their enthusiasm. At a bar with a beer, this sounds acceptable. But alone, it is hard to focus on such bland sounds. The few times it goes beyond the confines of its adopted sound like for the song “Run” or “Widow of my Dreams”, it is great. Sadly, that isn’t very often. Hopefully they will continue to hone down their sound, as this was their first album together. Here’s hoping.