(Artemis Records)
Most of the Josh Joplin Group's new album, seems to be repeated from some other place. The exact riff or line can't be immediately traced, but there is a sense that this was played before or sung before. The album sounds like some echo whose source cannot be tracked down, a sound wave that has already bounced off the canyon walls. It carries little of the richness of the original, instead only producing enough noise to be picked up. This isn't to say that the album lacks originality; it just doesn't sound original the first time it's heard.
Yet somewhere in the easily mistaken familiarity comes a moment or two that shows off a dark corner left unexplored. One of the few instances comes on \Lucky,"" where a dreary mood borders on a cry for redemption. Joplin turns the song away from himself, singing, ""Looking past the mirror and staring past yourself/ Everyone is helpful but no one's any help."" He rolls out the quietly wrought desperation in second person that seems believable at times. Howling, ""You still believe"" in the last few seconds brings the song to more of a question of a conclusion than any sort of answer. ""Lucky"" stands out because the mood of the song keeps a little bit of distance between the lyrics and the music.
The next track, ""Trampoline,"" pushes the few minutes of ingenuity from the previous song deep into the memory. ""Trampoline,"" instead of offering a pick-up midway through the album, spins a tale in uncomfortable, bulky phrasing and the backing of piano chords wear themselves out after the first minute. The chorus offers a single, sparse metaphor, ""I am my trampoline,"" that bottoms out. From there on out, the album makes occasional attempts to pick itself up, but just keeps tripping on its own feet.
""Happy at Last"" drops a few allusions early on and never gets around to picking them up. The second half of the song gives nothing but a brief bout of complaining that covers itself up in a melancholic bit of shoulder shrugging. Later on, the title track tries to be both ironic and witty but stumbles instead of struts. Joplin can't get his voice to soar and he sounds like he aborted a whisper when he is trying to sing quietly.
It would be a greater disappointment if the first half of the album set some sort of precedent for the later half, but that simply isn't the case. ""Siddhartha's of Suburbia"" holds itself back instead of digging deeper into the mediocrity of has-beens. Joplin points the arrows of his words in the right direction, but fires blunted missiles instead of sharpened barbs. Even ""It's Only Entertainment,"" with an obvious target in sight, fails to hit the mark it's aimed at. The ""angry boys in baggy clothes"" and ""hipster friends"" are tagged as hypocrites but brush off the accusation when Joplin turns to a whine instead of a declaration.
After their debut, , it seemed as though the four guys of the Josh Joplin group (Joplin, Allen Broyles, Geoff Melkonian and Eric Taylor) would live up to their first album.
Instead of advancing on their artistic success, they have withdrawn, losing themselves in mediocre words and instrumental work that fills the minutes but doesn't do much else. Someone must have put a shutter on whatever creativity inspired ""Camera One"" and figured that is better than the future of the Josh Joplin Group could be.
