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Gimmicks or tricks don't make good music - but transform a gimmick into a distinctive, unique sound, then you've earned people's attention, if only by making music that's instantly recognizable as your own. Yes, the Rock*a*Teens still drench seemingly every moment of their new CD with sheets of murky reverb. Even with one acoustic guitar and completely dry production, these songs would deserve to keep that attention, because of Chris Lopez's yearning, passionate vocals. Slightly hoarse yet resonant, at times straining to reach notes slightly out of its range - because they're the right notes, dammit - that voice defines R*A*Ts nearly as much as its distinctive sound. Lopez once described the band's sound as "Orbisonic, reverb-drenched art-billy bummer rock" - and as dead-on as this description may be, the difference between the nearly unearthly quality of Roy Orbison's tenor and Lopez's harsher, more human vocals makes the melancholic effect of the Rock*a*Teens more direct and personal compared with the almost mythical effect of Orbison's music. The band does introduce a few new twists to its trademark sound here: Justin Hughes colors "New York by Helicopter" with a gloriously murky mellotron, trebly and overdriven guitar, and what sounds like a piano recorded over transatlantic phone lines. A toy piano glitters atop "Appomattox Panic Attack." And "Stardust 680 A.M." takes a slightly subtler tack than most of the album, a hungover hymn to the salvation of the familiar A.M. radio. One of the most compelling and affecting records of the year. |
