Gracetown (2015)

Review

"We spend too much time together I wanna be with you forever But we need space You should stay at your place"

Okay only one music review in 2014, ironically San Cisco's debut self-titled album; we really need to improve on that. On the bright side our reviews are coming quicker than the Freemantle quartet's releases, the last one being way back in 2012! Right here, right now, I am promising to do a whole bunch better and get at least ten music reviews out each year, so here's number one, you can keep count if you really must.

Late 2014 the Band released the first single from their new album the simply titled Run. It was immediately recognisable as a San Cisco track, with infectious chorus lines, and a bubble brightness that had you stamping your foot along to Scarlett Stevens' beat. I noted to my partner on first hearing Run that the track certain marked a maturity from previous tracks, with the Band perhaps finally finding their collective voice and moving their indie pop sounds to the next level. Then came the second single Too Much Time and the worrying started, the track is overly bubble gum pop and is perhaps the worse release from San Cisco in their short history. Comparing this track to previous numbers like Fred Astaire should indicate just how disappointing the track was, it didn't bode well for the album as a whole.

Immediately the album was released I rushed in and got my copy of Gracetown, yeap we generally pay for things like most punters. Got to say on putting the CD on my worst fears were realised, it just wasn't that good. While the themes of love, love lost, etc. were to the fore, they were presented with juveniles lyrics and a blancmange of bubble gum pop that threatened to take me back to the horrors of the 1970s! For mine Gracetown was definitely a step backwards from the foot tapping San Cisco.

Normally I would breakdown the album by track but to be honest the whole second half of this one just merged into middle of the road background noise, the sort of sounds that leave you wondering why you are bothering listening to the release. I'm sure some folk will find the odd track worth a listen but I'm putting this album into the listen once category. Okay I played the CD a few times to ensure I was giving it a decent go, but that's time I ain't never ever going to get back. Run has some merit but overall Gracetown isn't worth the price of admission. Triple J might have this one on heavy rotation currently but to be honest that station has descending to playing hip hop and middle of the road crud.

A number of reviewers are giving the album two thumbs up which makes me wonder if the quote whore phenomena isn't confined to just the movie end of the critical spectrum. Don't be fooled by fools posting wordage to ensure they get more freebies from the Distributors, Gracetown isn't a good release, and I'm left wondering what happened to integrity in the review game, guess that went out the first time someone offered a freebee for a good review.

The disappointment with Gracetown is to a certain degree mitigated by the fact that this is San Cisco's second album release, one of the tougher assignments in the modern music scene. So your first album is always going to benefit from the songs you have built up over the years while the third and subsequent titles should show a developing musical style. The second album however shows song writers forced to confront their art without the benefit of a bunch of previously written songs or with the hindsight of having written complete albums previously. As stated second albums can be woeful and that's definitely what San Cisco have duly delivered, however they are not alone in having fallen into this particular rut.

While I feel Gracetown is pretty much a bad album I will still check out San Cisco's next release, everyone deserves a second chance folks, the band's writers can produce great material, it just isn't in evidence on this particular album. While everyone is proclaiming about the emperor's new clothes and the album charted high on release, according to some sources, there are going to be a lot of disappointed folk out there. While San Cisco have no doubt given us a release they truly believe in, there's no denying the tracks on offer are some of the weakest the Band have committed to recording. Gracetown is not recommended folks, but hey if bubble gum pop is your thang then dial in, I regret the $20 bucks out of the Sminds budget I spent.