LEWIS
Even So (Deep Elm)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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My friend in London just mailed me a January 2002 issue of the NME with a large cover story on Emo, and a test you could take to see if you were an Emo-dork but hadn't yet realized it. Being able to stomach Jets to Brazil and owning a studded belt are but two clues. I nearly choked on my tea reading some of the descriptions of "the average Emo types." They even had cut-out paper dolls with shirts and Emo beads on so you could dress them up for fun when someone is hogging the toilet, and there isn't anything else to do on a Sunday morning.

Wowee! Let's put a XXXS Jawbreaker tee on the Johnny doll and throw those fake black glasses on his face. Why, now he's ready for the Jimmy Eat World gig!

I actually used to have a friend who became Emo one fine day for no apparent reason. After dying his hair black, and getting pointless star tattoos on both arms he went to Thrifty and purchased a set of regulation eyeglasses. He didn't actually need them to read or see a foot in front of him (like me), but he wore them anyway.

I think my old friend would like Lewis (if he's still rocking out with his empty backpack), who seem keen to leap aboard the weighed-down and teetering bandwagon. They appear to enjoy Radiohead just enough (another Emo prerequisite) to have fragments of The Bends in their collective DNA. Good choice, as no one tries to sound anything like them on my block. The production on Even So (by Patrick Keel) is superb, but the sparkle added to the mix only makes the icky bits gleam that much more powerfully. Even their name is anonymous and plain enough to typecast them. Why, I'll bet it's probably the last name of the bass player's girlfriend or something - even though they claim it's the famous author C.S.

They discuss being "Out of Sync," and have indeed "Returned to the Scene of the Crime". Even so, they maintain, "This Won't Hurt a Bit." And, they're right, it didn't. Once I pressed <STOP>.

3/10

© 2002 - Jason Thornberry