Record Label: Capitol Records
Genre: Country / Honky Tonk
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

I’m all for evolution in music. I mean, we wouldn’t have Johnny Cash without Hank Williams, and no Lynn Anderson without Patsy Cline. But sometimes some bands take things a little too far. For example. Southern Californian quintet Saosin take a tried and true formula of songs about heartbreak and finding one’s true self and destroy them and just somehow make them sounds a little off. This is not the country music you and I grew up on. I’m not chastising them for using electric guitars heck, where would we be without Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound but this is just too much. It seems like someone cranked this one past 3 on the amplifiers a strict country no-no. Sure they have vocal harmonies, but they’re no Brooks and Dunn. Rather than trying to match notes and compliment each other’s voices, these young rascals just shout as loud as they can. Now that ain’t right.

I don’t think it’s even a problem of songwriting. I think it’s that these boys were sadly misinformed that being really raucous gets you fans. Well let me give them an important message: it don’t. Sometimes sitting down and playing a song without all the yammering drums and whining makes for songs that could actually be played on country radio. This can’t even be played on adult alternative! How in roarin’ heck did the record label think they could market this? There’s a bug on the cover! No cowboy hats, spokes, fields, backhoes, trucks, or pregnancies anywhere!

Someone should be fired for the creation of a country record as un-country as this one. But I bet these fellers are so off they don’t even have a gun collection!

Bottom Line: They bastardized country music! They don’t deserve a cotton pickin’ minute!
Notable Tracks: none.
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