Review of Cracker's "Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey"

I have decided that it is high time to gear the content of this burgeoning blog towards readers outside of the 'biographical Nietzsche' niche. As a long-time music lover with what I like to think of as diverse tastes, I imagine it inevitable that this blog will begin to house some music reviews and ruminations, although I don't want it to dissolve into the cesspool of boring rock music blogs that are out there. That being said, here's a review of a record from a group that lies outside of my core interests but that I've nonetheless followed closely throughout their career.

"Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey," the latest record from alt-country-rock outfit Cracker, is an unexpected kick in the pants. After beating a decade-long lull with their bittersweet 2006 "Greenland" album, the band here sounds wide awake, revitalized, and hungry. Apparently the dissolve of the Bush administration has enabled the lads to break out of the rut that was their critique-cum-celebration of backwards Americana and step confidently back into literate, heavy riff rock, amplifying their omnivorous roots music with an unprecedented hard edge. Indeed, the band has never sounded as alive as they do on "Yalla Yalla (Let's Go)", the album's opener, its titular closer, or "I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right", in which singer David Lowery's vocals push into the red for a glorious instant. The sardonic country ("Friends") and radio-friendly pop-rock ("Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me") moments are kept to a tasteful minimum, benefiting from lean production and especially effective songwriting, while the Buzzcocks-esque "Hand Me My Inhaler" and "Time Machine" fly in from left field and sail straight out of the ballpark on the strength of their wit and simplistic punch. All and all this is really refreshing stuff from a smart but inconsistent band who in the recent past felt compelled to cheekily document their split from Virgin Records in an eight-verse slogger ("It Ain't Gonna Suck Itself") and pen an awful, self-congratulatory rap ("What You've Been Missing") tacked awkwardly onto the end of their 2002 "Forever" record. With "Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey", Cracker is at the peak of its game, writing sharp and hard-hitting roots rock songs that take their project seriously while leaving plenty of room for a smirk. 9.0/10 (429 Records - www.429records.com)