Customer Reviews

Drag It Up

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really think that some of the other reviewers here should have used the kid's review form, because I'm guessing some of them aren't actually adults.

"Where are the clever lyrics?" one of them asks. Well, here are just three of many examples:

"Looking down she tells you things are looking up." (Adelaide)

"He's got the goods but he's not good for his word" (The New Kid)

"I'm on Wounded Knee/and we're at Waterloo." (Won't Be Home)

Of course, those lyrics might get lost on those who have no idea what Wounded Knee and Waterloo are, but my feeling is that most 97's fans are intelligent enough to get those references.

A few reviewers have said that the album is "too slow". To them, I say there's a Green Day album coming out soon.... go get that.

And still others, I imagine, are looking for a repeat of 'Satellite Rides'. As good as that album is, I'm glad the 97's didn't try to emulate it.

'Drag It Up' is an album by adults, for adults. The 97's are all in their 30s by now, and most (if not all of them) are married with children. So it's only natural that songs about getting drunk and hooking up have fallen by the wayside. In fact, the only song that fits into that category ('Coahuila') sticks out like a sore thumb, and could easily have been left off the album.

Instead, we get songs about adults falling in and out of love ('Won't Be Home', 'Bloomington'), adults realizing their youth and dreams are behind them ('Valium Waltz', 'Adelaide'), adults grown cynical by the 'flavor-of-the-month' culture we live in ('The New Kid'), adults who've grown from high school losers to success stories ('Friends Forever'), and even a song about dying too young ('No Mother'). Perhaps this is why the kids just don't get it.

A few of these songs are among the best this band has ever recorded. 'Adelaide' might be the best 97's ballad since 'Salome'. 'Won't Be Home' and 'The New Kid' rank right up there with 'Barrier Reef' and 'Rollerskate Skinny'. And 'Bloomington' would sound at home on a Beatles album.

Even the lesser songs on 'Drag It Up' are good ones. 'Borrowed Bride' has the catchy chorus of 'Life comes apart at the seams, it seems' (another clever lyric, by the way). 'Blinding Sheets of Rain' is a classic country weeper, and 'In the Satellite Rides A Star' has a slight psychadelia feeling to it.

All in all, this CD may not have the energy of 'Too Far To Care' or 'Satellite Rides', but like the 97's themselves, it's deeper and more mature than anything they've offered to date.

Old 97s' edginess is missing on their latest album. Their mixture of punk and alt-country is heard on only half of the songs on this album. The rest, while not bad, seems like continuation of the tone and themes of Rhett Millers solo album, The Instigator. Drag It Up is a worthy follow-up to Satellite Rides, it's just nothing amazing or ground-breaking. If you're a longtime fan, you will of course want this. If this would be your first Old 97's purchase, I'd recommend instead Too Far To Care or Satellite Rides.

I've read the other reviews, and it looks like you'll either love this album, or you'll hate it. You'll either feel vindicated by the band's range, or betrayed that this isn't "Satellite Rides Redux" or "More Fight Songs."
It is more mellow. It does reflect their roots. It is more "back to basics."
And it is a classic.

I love their work and their songwriting. ("Cocktail napkin lyrics"...is that critic SERIOUS?) Adelaide, No Mother, The New Kid, Smokers -- those are just the ones I can rattle off the top of my head this early morning -- will stick with you. You'll either find them haunting or catchy or -- as is typical for the '97's -- both.
Give it a shot. You'll either love it or hate it. But don't expect anything overproduced and poppy, because you won't find it here. You won't even find the jangley sounds of favorite songs "Barrier Reef" or "504" or "Niteclub." It is a quiet homage to the Old 97's range, growth, and maturity.

This is a great album. On Fight Songs and Satellite Rides, the band seemed to be attempting to weight themselves more towards their poppy leanings, but this album is just more genuine. The songs range from extremely energized (won't be home, new kid) to whispery meandering (valium waltz, blinding sheets of rain) and everywhere in between.

For those of us who started our addiction with Hitchike to Rhome, all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you, Old 97's, for giving us patient lifers a very fine gift.

People who expected an album reminiscent of Satellite Rides are in for a bit of a let down. Drag It Up is, in fact, nothing like their slightly pop-ish last album. Rather it is, as the band has said repeatedly, a more personal album. The songs are a mish mash of previously written songs collected over the years. "Won't Be Home", for example, is originally a Ranchero Bros. song, a side project for Murray Hammond and Rhett Miller. It swings in the familiar fast-pitch twang style that has become so identifiable with the Old 97's music. But "This Is The Moonlight", slows down the pace a little. The song which Rhett Miller originally wanted to put on his solo album, The Instigator,keeps the album grounded. "Smokers" breaks away from the usual stuff Murray Hammond sings and proves to be one of the best tracks on Drag It Up. The intensity of the song builds up as it progresses. "The New Kid" is the song most likely to be everyones favorite as well as a new staple in the band's live performances. It's a sharp expression of jealously, as well as a rip at the momentary fame that comes with celebrity.
Two songs, though, which really set the album apart are "Valium Waltz", and "Adelaide". "Valium Waltz" is one of their slower, more lyrically driven songs that has you feeling like rock bottom but wanting to hear it again. As for "Adelaide", it almost sounds like something coming from a folk group, beautiful and harmonic.
Drag It Up is not a softening of the band or even flawed for that matter. It's a catharsis of all the things that have occurred since their break, and works that they've wanted to release for some time. The emotional release of Drag It Up is what makes this album so powerful as well as prevents it from being glossed over with people's expectations of what they should be rather than what they really are, an truly original band.

I discovered the Old 97s by getting into other Bloodshot artists awhile back, and I kinda traced the line to the 97s. This album, though, made me wish I found them earlier. Different from their earlier work, but gripping. Unlike many albums where a song that is catchy the first time gets old fast, the pieces on Drag it Up can be a fixture in your CD player and stand up to repeated listenings. Great lyrics, great melodies, and a very good flow to the album overall. Fantastic.

I'm surprised at how many people were expecting Satellite Rides because in my opinion it's the least '97's sounding' album of them all (still a great record). This record, as someone already said, would be viewed completely differently had it come out after Wreck Your Life. Perhaps it depends on when you found the band. I first heard Wreck Your Life about 7 years ago, and have been hooked since the first verse of Big Brown Eyes. This album sounds like a mix of Too Far Too Care and Wreck Your Life. What I mean by that is that it has the thick production of WYL, and captures the feeling of a 97s show almost (not quite) as well as TFTC. People will disagree with that, but I'm guessing Adelaide is going to be a real gem live, and I've already heard Won't Be Home live about 4 times, and anybody who has knows its an instant 97s classic. Live, Smokers gets the crowd going almost as well as Timebomb. Cohuila and Valium Waltz would be right at home on Hitchhike to Rhome, and New Kid and Bloomington perfect what they seemed to be after on Fight Songs. So, in my opinion they've given fans the full range of their sound with this album. Also, the songs are full of all the characters and stories the 97s portray so well. What more could we ask for?

This is one you have to just buy and decide for yourself. If you've liked the Old 97's for anything they've done in the past, or even think you do, just get it 'cause these tunes are rocking, sad, dancing, funny, pensive, angry, fast and slow. Don't expect an album like any one of the others they've done, but a full spectrum of all of them, with a leaning towards the twang of the early years, thrown in with pop dashes of Satellite Rides. This isn't polished, its not supposed to be. In fact, if they had made this album right after Wreck Your Life, no one would be complaining. Its a diverse group of songs, but it certainly is cohesive and held together by familiar 97s licks and themes; for those that wanted more "brit-pop" growth, just go get Fastball or Franz Ferdinand; or maybe you should get this album or even the next Old 97's album, because I think fans of that type of music would still be thrilled with this stuff. But really for now, this one's for the fans of the Old 97's and the fans of great original music. PS Friends Forever, Adelaide, and Bloomington are underrated tunes, watch for them to rise above Smokers and The New Kid as the songs the 97s will be promoting off this album in a few years.

I am personally glad that I don't want to give this album 5 stars right off the bat. Any album that is that intoxicating from the get go, typically loses its luster quickly. What's great about the Old 97's, and Drag It Up, is that they rely on the influences of all four band members. There isn't a power struggle here, and you can see in the album that everyone plays his part (best evidence is obviously Coahuila).

Although you might need a little time to adjust to Drag It Up, I would say it is right up there with Wreck Your Life and Satellite Rides (my two favorite albums). Tracks like The New Kid and Won't Be Home have a bit of that major-label flare that won them many new fans over the past five years. Instantly you are drawn to them.

I believe Drag It Up is more personal than those songs though. The depth of the albums is in tracks like In the Satellite Rides a Star, a song that has been a Ranchero Brothers staple just waiting for the right time to be released. Adelaide, my personal favorite on the album, is another example of the intimacy of Drag It Up. The album is underproduced so you can feel close to the band, like you are in the same room. These aren't songs for MTV or the radio, but rather songs for the band's fans, and each time you do listen, you feel a little closer to the Old 97's.

All in all, I love the album. There are a few songs (Borrowed Bride, Moonlight, and Valium Waltz) that are still growing on me, but I am sure that I will soon cherish Drag It Up, as I do the other Old 97's albums, as one of my all time favorites.

Rhett and the Boys were facing big expectations after 2000's near-perfect Satellite Rides. Sadly, they don't meet those expectations here. As much as I love their power-poppy previous release, I am just as big a fan of their shotgun-whiskey, country-fried earlier albums like Hitchhike to Rhome, Wreck Your Life & Too Far to Care. When I heard the new album was going to harken back to their roots, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, Drag it Up simply lacks the energy and good tunes of those classics. It feels like they wrote 2 or 3 really good new tunes and then filled out the album with some tossed-off sounding B-sides. The album never feels cohesive. Also, there are too many slow-paced songs for my liking (Moonlight, Borrowed Bride, Blinding Sheets of Rain, Valium Waltz, Bloomington & Adelaide all have similar, downtempo feels). That being said, the first and last songs on this disc are among the best things they've ever done. Won't Be Home is just spectacular, the kind of uptempo rocker with a soaring chorus that makes you want to drive real fast with no headlights down lonely country roads. The last tune, No Mother, has drawn flack from some, but for me, it's an incredibly moving song, the kind of saccharine tear-jerker that's almost impossible to get right, but Old 97's nail it. See them in concert if you can. I saw them back in January, and they played three or four songs from what would be Drag it Up. That's part of the reason I was so excited, the versions they played that night had a passion and kineticism that's missing from the studio versions here. I still love these guys, and here's hoping we don't have to wait four years for their next album.

P.S.- To the individual who wrote the laughably ignorant Amazon review: Rhett Miller is a wonderful, under-rated songwriter thank-you-very-much. Furthermore, Old 97's has been garnering overwhelmingly positive critical reception for 10 years now.