REVIEW: Buffalo Tom, Smitten (Polydor)
- Jon Steltenpohl
When you make your list of classic American Rock bands, there's a good chance that Buffalo Tom wouldn't be there. And that's a shame. Spawned during the late 80's in the same New England scene that sprouted Dinosaur Jr. and Blake Babies, Buffalo Tom never really broke free from a dedicated following of fans. Yet, unlike many of their contemporaries whose albums leap from classics to clunkers without rhyme or reason, Buffalo Tom has slowly continued to mature and improve its sound to the point where the band can't really be ignored anymore. Smitten finds Bill Janovitz and his band mates Chris Colburn and Tom Maginnis driving further down the American rock highway with billboards of broken dreams and bruised hearts marking the way.
Buffalo Tom's problem with fame might be their avoidance of a trendy sound. There's a little bit of "no depression" country sound mixed in with a Dinosaur Jr. crunch. Add to that a bit of alternative pop and superb writing prowess, and you get a great sound. Unfortunately, there's no "ego" here to drive goofy samples or guitar riffs. Smitten is a straight forward exercise in rock. Which makes Smitten a lot like a Smithereens album. You'll love every song, but there won't be a single hit on it.
Or maybe there will be this time. Picking up on the current trend of catchy, suggestive songs like Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy", alternative radio stations seem to be playing anything that a 15 year old boy might think is cool. "Rachael" just might fit the bill because of a chorus line with the words "but aren't you really just a penny whore, Rachael tell me what I'm waiting for". The song's actually a lot deeper if you catch the first verse, but who's going to bother figuring out the lyrics?
More typical of the album are bittersweet ballads like "Postcard" and "Wiser". "Scottish Windows" adds keyboards and strings to the mix. Desperation and survival are touched upon in the melancholy "Register Side". "It's about the in betweens," sings Janovitz. The song is about a man hiding from his past. Comments Janovitz, "he quietly watched life go by on the register side." The album closes with a crescendo of bleeding guitars with "Walking Wounded".
About the only flaw is that Janovitz's voice is beginning to show wear and tear in a Bryan Adams death spiral. Chris Colburn takes the lead on a few songs for this album, and does a fine job. As a whole, Smitten is a perfectly balanced album. There's ballads, grunge, alterna-pop, no depression, and more. Think of Bruce Springsteen with a grunge sound or Neil Young in a three piece version of Crazy Horse, and you're getting close to Buffalo Tom's sound.
Smitten is cleary Buffalo Tom's best album after a history of improving albums, and fans of the band will be pleased. As for new listeners, there's no glaring singles on Smitten, but if you hear "Rachael" on the radio, give it a good listen. You just might like it.
