This River's Too Much To Love
Smog's album 'A River Ain't Too Much To Love' is the kind of lazy, laid back amble into chill-out music that lies alongside hot summer days. Bill Callahan's deep voice is the key point in Smog's music and the first track 'Palimpsest' is a clear indication of what's to come.
As predicted, the mellow guitars continue into 'Say Valley Maker', which does raise the pace marginally. Still, the sliding melancholy remains and all there is to do is focus on the lyrics that are delivered with a deep-rooted American twang. Each song on this album blends into the next effortlessly and before you know it, the album has slithered into 'The Well'. Despite a playing time of seven minutes, this song doesn't really manage to achieve anything. Just when the pace picks up, the song sinks back into the nondescript realms that it previously dwelled in. Eventually, 'Rock Bottom Riser' begins, sounding slightly darker than the previous three tracks. To be perfectly honest, my hands are itching for the skip button. 'I Feel Like The Mother Of The World' is just far too quiet for it to hold my attention for long.
Perhaps though, I'm not entering into the spirit of things. 'In The Pines' is a lengthy retelling of a story. Like a dusty, travel-worn stranger, Callahan imparts the way he sees the world in a way that will leave listeners dissatisfied if they were craving the earlier works of Smog.
'Drinking At The Dam' is more of the same, smooth backing music, American vocals and lyrics that only make sense if you concentrate solely on the images that Callahan invents in the confines of such whitewashed accompanying sounds. 'Running and Loping' continues the trend of blank, nondescript, inoffensive music, which ambles along in it's own little world.
'Let Me See The Colts' is the highlight of the album, so it's a shame it arrives at the very end. It takes a special type of person to be able to keep their attention focused on an album that's lacking in so much flesh. When you strip down an album with country tendencies right back to it's backbone, you'll end up with Bill Callahan's voice on a record that could be a lot stronger if it wasn't so focussed on maintaining such a cool, laid back exterior.