Customer Reviews

TA

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Well, as a long time Trans Am fan, I guess I won't even try to defend this album intellectually. It is what other reviewers have said it is, an 80's Survivor mess in post-rock clothing masquerading as a party album. Nonetheless, I like it, and find it very listenable and melodic and friendly, especially "A Different Kind of Love" and "Cold War." Although I prefer other Trans Am albums ("Future World" and "Red Line"), I believe "TA" will spend more time in my disc player than "Surrender to the Night" or "The Surveillance" or even their self-titled debut, and it just doesn't deserve the antipathy that has been leveled at it since its release.

Trans Am never fails to amaze me. They possess the ability to perform any style of music well. Here they shoot for an 80's new wave/synth pop sort of feel, almost reminicent of Philip Manley's side project, Knodel, but more dance oriented. Unlike the other Trans Am albums, however, nearly every song on TA has vocals (without vocoder, too). This is not a bad thing though. The vocals on this album are much stronger than those on Red Line.
There are still a few songs that will please the purists, too. While the first half of the album sees them venturing into newer territory (for them, at least), the latter half echos the musical beauty of Surrender to the Night.
All in all, TA posesses all the fury of old Trans Am while keeping the band pushing themselves in new directions.

I've been a fan of Trans Am for years, and I have to say I got a little worried when I caught them on the Redline tour and they actually tried to sing quite a few songs. Well, this serious stab at a more commercial release speaks volumes, and for the diehard fan, it [stinks]. Trans Am leaves the indie-synth low-fi sound in favor of big drums & rehashed 80s production. TA isn't rockin' at all. While there are about 2 listenable tracks, the rest are long. Very long.

This new album is quite horrible in my opinion. The thing is that any review is kind of what Trans Am seems to be rebelling against. In a showing of "true love", the band was said to have let a member of Pines of Nowhere have total freedom in the engineering, recording, and decision-making for this album. They basically go on to say that letting go of their opinions and control is the most honest way to free themselves of the "negativities" of individuality (just listen to positive people, not the usual intelligent subtlety you expect from Trans Am) in hopes of reaching a higher group love (the communal party album). If it sounds as if there is no logical progression from the last album, the far better Red Line, it's because there isn't any.

This new philosophy may seem liberating and exciting at first but it ultimately comes down to the value of the album itself. It may have been fun for them to make but I wonder if they bothered listening to it. If they had, maybe they would have realized that certain people, because they have more experience, know more about the technical aspects involved with a task than others who are less experienced. It sounds as if whoever recorded and produced the album has an ear that isn't quite as developed as what you'd expect from Trans Am, whos recordings became more interesting and skillful with each new album. Red Line consisted of some amazing decision-making and recording.

In the end, Trans Am made a boring album that doesn't deserve or even ask to be listened to repeatedly. Oh, but that's because they made a party album, that's right. An album that should be enjoyed by the whole group and should be "fun". Well, just as there are different parties, ranging from life-alteringly amazing to stupid and boring, Trans Am have made an album that is fitting for only one of those categories.