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CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS
Better Day (Razor & Tie)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
With roots in Dream Syndicate, The Cowsills, The Bangles, The dBs, REM and The Bluerunners, Continental Drifters have as good a claim as anyone to pop super-group status, but status has never been what the Drifters have been about. They're based in New Orleans because they make great music together. They survive distribution grief, airplay drought and similar career fu because they make great music together. The lineup remained cohesive through the collapse of Peter Holsapple and Susan Cowsill's marriage, because they make great music (at least the musical kind) together. What I'm saying, I suppose, is that the Contintental Drifters have always been about one thing - making great music together. Which they do, consistently.
Great albums, of course, are the result of great music, and Better Day is a great album. Bangle Vicki Peterson contributes three songs, and Mark Walton (Dream Syndicate) offers another, but the bulk of the material is split between Holsapple and Cowsill. Remember the last time a great pop group built an album around the marital strife of two of its key players? It was a landmark moment in a monumental career. This one's that good, folks.
One reason for that is that no matter how personal the subject matter might be, the writers know they're part of a band, and they give up their work to be channeled through the group, as a group. The lineup is rounded out with drummer Russ Broussard (ex-Bluerunners), co-author of "Peaceful Waking" with Cowsill and guitarist Robert Mach (once a bandmate of Walton's backing Steve Wynn), who may not share in the songwriting credits this time out, but who shares fully in the sound and shape of the songs.
Oh, that other marital strife masterpiece? The one this one's as good as? Well, I'll let you figure that out from the rumor mill....
Track List:
Na Na * Tomorrow's Gonna Be * Live On Love * Long Journey Home * Cousin * Too Little, Too Late * Snow * That Much A Fool * Someday * (Down By The) Great Mistake * Peaceful Waking * Where Does The Time Go?
© 2001 - Shaun Dale