A few moments into CD’s opening
song, “Join The Band,” I just started smiling. The music overtook me. Here is
some good rock music that has a sense of play, a sense of enjoyment, and
encourages everyone to join in. “Join the
band/Come on tour/Get in the van/What are you waiting for?” It’s a song
that mentions various places, and is certainly a song you want on your playlist
if you’re traveling around to see a band (as we’ve all done at one point or
another). There is some delightful goofiness, like these lines about the
soundcheck: “Line check, mike check,
soundcheck, mindset/Checkity check before you wreckity wreck.” And at the
end, this song simply rocks. That’s followed by “Georgia OK,” about Georgia O’Keeffe.
I dig how the bass is used in this song. “I’m
losing sleep over Georgia O’Keeffe/I can’t compete, no, I can’t compete.”
I love word games. I tend to
play Boggle more often than Scrabble these days (mainly because of the time involved),
but once belonged to a somewhat casual Scrabble league. So when I first glanced
at this CD’s track list, “Triple Letter Score” stood out as something I was
excited to hear. In this one, Shotgun Jimmie sings, “Triple letter score wasted on a vowel.” Ah, only three points. But
the song is mainly about camping at the beach, and it’s getting me excited about
my own trip to Cape Cod (we won’t be camping, but we’ll be spending a lot of
time on the beach). It’s a fun tune, and features some good lyrics, like these:
“Find someone to love/Fall in love and
fall apart/Get distracted by another/Change your mind and break her heart/As
the sparks from the fire rise into the sky/Watch everything you know disappear
into the night.”
“Field Of Trampolines,” the
album’s title track, has something of a 1960s pop vibe, combined with touches
of punk. This is a great sound for summer. “Are
you ready for green/Are you ready for blue/Could you actually ever be blue/Do
you know what I mean/When I’m telling you/I could actually never be blue/In the
fields of trampolines.” That’s followed by “Love Letter,” which has kind of
a quirky sound, thanks in large part to the addition of organ, which I love.
But that vibe is also because of the song’s lyrics. Here is a taste: “I didn’t want to fail ya/You took me to
Australia/And everyone got sick/We went down to Florida/And everyone adored ya/It
was so romantic.” This is one of my favorites.
“Song For Julie, Chris, Rick +
Mark” is a fun tune to get you bopping around, coming at you at a good clip
with a great punk vibe. “You seem so
angry, and it completely breaks my heart/To know I could feel like that about
anything/It’s probably not that smart.” It’s a punk length too, at like a
minute and a half. The album then concludes with “Walkman Battery Bleed.” This
one definitely takes me back to those days I spent at Cape Cod in the summer when
I was a kid. “Back in the summer when we
were younger/Pockets of sand that we brought home from the beach/I watched the waves
move in slow motion/I let the Walkman drain its batteries.” And at one
point there is a playful nod to “Heart And Soul” on piano. “Whatever makes you happy/Whatever gets you
through the day.”
CD Track List
- Join The Band
- Georgia OK
- Solar Array
- Triple Letter Score
- Project 9
- Field Of Trampolines
- Love Letter
- Constantine Believer
- Song For Julie, Chris, Rick + Mark
- Walkman Battery Bleed
Field Of Trampolines was released on both CD and vinyl on March 18,
2016 on You’ve Changed Records.
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