KNIEVEL
The Name Rings A Bell That Drowns Out Your Voice (In Music We Trust)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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This is the third album by this Australian trio, and if the general rule is that familiarity breeds contempt, this is the proverbial exception that proves the rule. There's a great deal that will sound familiar to any fan of gentle, guitar driven pop music. After all, pop music is constructed from a fairly limited palette. There are only so many chords, so many variations on bass, guitar, keys and drums, so many permutations of the underlying structure that makes a pop song a pop song in the first place. At some point, originality becomes distracting. Knievel doesn't exert a great deal of effort on achieving originality. Instead, they concentrate on creating the best music possible within the formulaic framework they've chosen.

The result is very good music, indeed. It won't sound that much different from any number of things you've heard before at first. Listen a bit more carefully and you'll notice that while it may sound familiar, it's actually better than most of what you'll compare it to. Not because there's anything strikingly original, but because they understand that creating a great pop record is every bit as much craft as art, and they're careful and capable craftsmen. They write well, play well and pay careful attention to production values, and the result is a record you'll want to play over and over.

Track List:

Don't Explain * We Can Identify * Thoughts In A Pattern * The End Of Trying * Chance Meeting * Guesswork * Faces On The Journey * I Keep On Waiting * Need To Know Basis * Who's On My Side * Find The Sun

© 2002 - Shaun Dale