Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Review: Bert Susanka - Onward Christian Slater


Label: Cornerstone RAS

Released: February 13, 2007

I once saw an interview with a pro surfer. When asked who was the best surfer in the world, she replied, "The one having the most fun." Bert Susanka might be the musical embodiment of that surfing ideal.

Onward Christian Slater takes the harmonies of the Beach Boys, the down-to-earth grittiness of the Replacements and the quirky eclecticism of They Might Be Giants and wrap it up into a charmingly imperfect package. There are hints of surf, ska, power pop, hip-hop, pop punk, doo-wop, even psychedelia, so the album doesn't really have a lot of musical continuity. However, it's laidback spirit ties it together in a way that can escape even the most single-minded albums. The songs are so close to pop brilliance at times that you might think with just a bit of polish these songs would be amazing. But don't be fooled. Polish would suck the life out of them. It would destroy their beauty. It would crush their spirit. This is an album that's right even when it's wrong.

It's more than just the surf theme that crops up throughout (most notably on the story-song, "The Trip That Needed to be Took") that makes this a surf album. The Beach Boys had far more of that. It's really the essence of surfing that makes it ultimately a surf album and that's something that speaks to more than just actual surfers. In a sense it may also be similar in character to the Dude from the Big Lebowski. This is not an album about the pristine, but the laidback, the easygoing, the happy (even when it's sad). It's an album that "takes it easy for all us sinners."

Rating: 8/10

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1 Comments:

Blogger taotechuck said...

Good call on this one. It reminds me of Brian Setzer, not so much in style but in the spirit of how Susanka has reclaimed surf music, mixed it with a lot of really odd (but fitting) influences, and made it really fun again.

The last track, ICD9300.00, is pretty awesome. The track name is the ICD9 code for an unspecified state of anxiety, and the song gives a nice nod to Pennsylvania 6-5000.

11:37 AM  

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