Customer Reviews

Stab the Unstoppable Hero

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

 

 

Check out the new Arlo disc -- you will not be sorry that you did. It is a good time -- and their live show is to be seen and enjoyed.
I will also warn you NOT to buy into the PitchforkMedia.com review... How weak is that? Look, if we wanted to read the overthought dribble of some critic... we would go to self-inflated sites like [theirs] and do so.
As an Amazon reader I am looking to find out if the book/dvd/disc is fun, [garbage] or what....I do not want to read paragraphs from some loser who writes his "critical reviews" for free and posts them all over the net...Listen to the record...see the show...experience Arlo!

Arlo is not a groundbreaking band the way you might consider Nirvana, The Cars, Weezer or the Beach Boys to be. Yet somehow, through amazing songwriting, tight musicianship and intricate harmonies Arlo summon the spirits of these bands and processes it into something they can call their own.
I usually like my punk a lot less poppy (Q & Not U, Unwound, Turbonegro, P.G.M.G. and Chavez...just to name a few) but Arlo really pulls it all off with no pretense and LOTS o' HEART!
Thats why I kinda consider Arlo to be like Bill Murray. Nobody would ever consider Bill to be the world's greatest thespian, but I have NEVER met anyone that doesn't just LOVE that guy. He's great! He's no Larry Olivier, but you can always count on Bill Murray to be GREAT! Same goes with Arlo.
I have had "Stab the Unstoppable Hero" & their first l.p., "Up High In the Night" in heavy rotation since i got them both almost two years ago now!

Nothing pumps my muffins like ARLO!!!

This band was the 2nd opener for my favorite Detroit band, the Waxwings. I was pleasantly surprised by these guys - very fun live, good sound, clever lyrics and hooks. Think what Weezer would sound like if Rivers weren't so full of himself.

The keepers are "Culture" and "Temperature," the rest of Stab The Unstoppable Hero is rather lazy and formulaic power pop, like being beaten about the head by the Sloan catalog. I can't say that this is a bad record -- if you like hooks, you like hooks right? -- but something tells me that Arlo is capable of so much more. Another recruit in the stationary pop army.

So this is one of my favourite albums and i'm really only posting this to redress the balance. Two Stars? One star? Dolts!

Arlo defy homogeony, each track pilfers a little from any number of genres. A little Beach Boys here, a little Nirvana there, add some Beatles and a deft way with lyrical melody and you have an absolutely wonderful, uplifting and varied album. So when did variety on an album become something detrimental?

This is rough edged, power pop punk with enough hooks and sweet, sweet sugar candy on the one album to last most punk poppers an entire career. To quote from Mr. Two Star reviewer: "...has the nature of pure power-pop and the hooks to ensure that no brain cells get out alive." And from Mr. One Star reviewer (@.co.uk): "It's riff heavy powerpop with catchy, singalong tunes with lots of 'oooohs & ahhhhhhs'."

Damn right!

Catchy cuts both ways. Immediately ear catching, it can send the simple pop mind and head bouncing. Like Kool Aid, it leaves kids wanting more, more, more! After the rush, though, and attention is still focused on the product, there better be something there to keep the people interested, or the emptiness is too plain to see.

Rock bands walk the line with catchy. One path leads to millions sold, while somehow maintaining scraps of street cred (think Green Day... or the Beatles if you are really picky). Another path leads to millions sold simply because the product is so dumb and hypnotizing (think Warrant's "Cherry Pie," simultaneously one of the catchiest and most annoying songs ever recorded). Catchy leads the horse to water and makes him drink, but something greater than cherry pie keeps him drinking.

Arlo has the gift of catchy. The LA band's second album, Stab the Unstoppable Hero, is jam-packed with hooks upon toe-tapping verses upon hummable choruses. They are a sturdy band with full harmonies, rockin' guitars, bass, whose jaunty drums come off bouncy without being goofy, fun without being funny and infectious without being repetitive. At least not self-repetitive.

Arlo would fit right in with early- to mid-'90s group of alternative power-pop rockers. The high speed chugging "Runaround" and "Temperature" are Nirvana-lite; "Up" sounds like a Matthew Sweet and Noel Gallagher b-side; Weezer and Pavement seem to join forces on "Linger On." Arlo's closest precedent, though, is the Posies, with the dual lead singer/songwriters, tight harmonies, busy drums and unabashed power-pop sound serving as the key evidence. If Arlo's "Too Sick to Tango" is not convincing enough as a Posies' leftover (with Attractions organ laid on top), listen to album opener "Little American" with the Posies' "Flavor of the Month" and work on your defense.

Any similarity to groups living or dead is purely a coincident of the genre, though. Arlo deliver song after song of catchy rock, and sometimes break some ground of their own. Though "Silkworm" belongs on a Scooby Doo musical interlude when those meddling kids are being chased by the baddie in the rubber caveman suit, it manages to cram four separate hooks over the inane lyrics. The waltzing title track manages strange time changes and feedback squalls with deft pop skill. And while the other 11 songs fire along on rock adrenaline, the cuddly acoustic-based "Bus Stop" provides well-placed levity on the sunniest of all the tracks.

As the catchy giveth, however, the catchy taketh away. Though Stab is immediately accessible from first to last, repeated listens reveal no greater rewards. All its charms are thrown out front, and these are not transcended. A good album to be listened to for charming days on end, then put away on the bottom of the collection.

Stab the Unstoppable Hero, the second outing from this L.A. four-piece, is numbingly catchy, and with lyrics like, "Are you made of salt?/ Or are you sour?/ Do you fall apart/ In the shower?," no one's going to nominate a song like "Little American" for the new Mensa theme. Yeah, Arlo's newest chunky, garage-style mess has the nature of pure power-pop and the hooks to ensure that no brain cells get out alive. Often, it can play almost as well as Weezer, or, more commonly, Walt Mink, but... goddammit, here's where the principles have to come in.
Let me be direct: when Arlo are wearing their masks, they may sound derivative, but at least they sound pretty good; they're taking cues from some great acts, after all. And as much of a difficulty as it is, it's better than the alternative. Sadly, for about a quarter of this farce, Arlo sounds like plain old Arlo, and I'll tell you, that's a prospect that won't be well-received. The most original shots they've got in them are muddy barrages that lean more towards grunge sludge ("Runaround") or limp-wristed alt-country ("Up"), songs notable only for their absolute nondescriptness and predictability. Stab the Unstoppable Hero even contains the single most obvious "we're rocking so hard that we can't even play the music properly" outro in recent memory. Though, to their credit, at least it sounds like they wrote it.

This album is just one more round in the inevitable victory of nature over principles-- it's not easy to resist some of the more entertaining pop kernels lingering on Stab the Unstoppable Hero. Which is a real shame. Hume might not have known what he was excusing, but that doesn't mean that this sort of pap can slide. These songs were written on tracing paper, leading to some amazingly troubling pop. Oh, and I guess since 'troubling pop' isn't a phrase that's likely to see much use, Arlo might be notable for that, too.

-Eric Carr, July 26th, 2002

i can't review the album. i can't find it anywhere near where i live. i suppose i will have to order it. good cover, though.

oh...i gave it 5 stars just because.