A sha-la-la-la…
Glasgow lads Trashcan Sinatras release this their seventh album, ‘In The Music’ as a follow up to 2004’s, ‘Weightlifting’. You may expect a band from that neck of the wooods to be either brash and soulless or all fingers and fiddles, but these lads are nothing of the sort giving us 10 slices of Indie and laid-back Pop.
The songs are well arranged and at times there is a feeling that they are more a bunch of session musicians rather than guys who have written and recorded a number of albums together. Album opener, ‘People’ starts us off at a gentle pace with melodic guitars and a laid-back beat, it’s observant lyrics ease out over the airwaves on a gentle breeze. ‘Easy On The Eye’ is quite easy on the ear insomuch as it’s inoffensive and gentle, hugging you rather than punching out bass lines, beats and lyrics. And perhaps for me this is a negative as this falls too easily into Easy Listening. Just like a band like Bon Jovi, who have fallen into that Easy Rock vein, churning out reasonable, if not slightly boring, Country-influenced-middle-of-the-road tunes, like Springsteen in Nashville. The Sinatras though are good at what they do, so it is whether or not this is your cup of tea.
‘In You Music’ doesn’t threaten to break you into a sweat if you are trying to dance along to the album, but does have a catchy hook of a chorus. Then in, ‘I Hung My Harp Upon The Willows’ we get a slightly more Folk-feel which works well in a ballad-lullaby sort of way. ‘Prisons’ sees the album speed up to mid-tempo in a foot tapper of a song that is instantly accessible. Then things slow right down again for, ‘Should I Prey’ which features Carly Simon (who is best remembered for her classic 1972 song ‘You’re So Vain’). It’s a slow duet with a crooning guitar, and a late night bar feel, and a popular tune with a lot of folk.
‘Morning Star’ has a nice piano in the mid-tempo range and there is something of a 1970’s Pop/Rock feel to it; I could imagine the band in silk jumpsuits and microphones with long cords. Next is the epic 7-minute song of, ‘Oranges And Apples’ that follows in the vein of the previous song. ‘The Engine’, albeit still a slow song, has a nice simple feel to it. It’s so uncomplicated and naive compared to the others, that this in itself gives it it’s own charm. Nice. Then we have the last song, and first single off of the album, ‘I Wish You’d Met Her’. The thing is that this song when I reviewed it a few months back was very good on it’s own, and there isn’t a song here that is bad, it’s just that all of the songs are so chilled and laid back that I feel my eyelids are dropping a millimetre each second.
Musically, technically and lyrically the album is very good. However it starts off being a little Indie-Pop in the vein of Teenage Fanclub, and ends up being something out of the Easy Listening section from the 1970’s. I’m not saying that this is bad, but I’m not saying that this is good either. Check it out, but be aware of what you are letting yourself in for, strap on your roller boots for a trip down memory lane…