Customer Reviews

Low Rises

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was inclined to like Baby Ray's LOW RISES before I put it on. I dug the cover art, and the song titles were just the kind that grab me: "King Kong", "Devil Ray", "Rocket-O", "Superb****". On first play, I was reminded of 34 SATELLITE... LOUD, catchy, good beats. Somewhere between alt country, grunge & techno, with lyrics that are a bit hard to make out, nearly lost in the sound mix. But as the album goes on, WHAT'S THIS? Jungle drums on one song ("King Kong"), a loud instro ("Devil Ray"), something that reminds me vaguely of early-70's top-40 pop "Rocket-O"), another that brings to mind THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL ("You Could Go To College"), and vocals that remind me of BADFINGER ("Pidgeon S***"). I've ALWAYS liked "variety" (The Beatles' REVOLVER, The Move's SHAZAM, anything by The Monkees!) so this album is grabbing me more than most of the stuff from Dren Records so far. They keep challenging me with the material they release, most of it's not really "my thing"-- but THIS one I can see really growing on me!

The other BABY RAY reviews pegged the band right. Get a copy if you can! You won't regret it.

This new album makes it quite clear why this band has been marked as "the next big thing" to come out of Boston. It rocks with enough hooks to catch Moby Dick, or perhaps, Moby Grape. The vocals' vivid imagery remind me of Frank Black at his best and the guitar playing reminds of some cosmic cross between adrian belew and mick ronson. this is one fine, consistent album with not a single weak track.