Et Tu Bob? By OTG

Fans of popular culture are far more tolerant to a mis-step by their favourite actor than they are for a musician. I think this is because an actor can be in 50+ films over a career where a musician may release 6 – 8 albums during their prime. Unless they are a Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen or a Right Said Fred a musician’s productive career lifeline is limited.

It is also easier to pick in advance the dogs on someone’s acting resume, thanks largely to “Moonlighting” and “Die Hard”, (I was an impressionable teenager,) Bruce Willis is my favourite actor; but I have never seen “Breakfast of Champions”, “The Whole Ten Yards” or “The Story of Us”, the posters warned me to stay away.

(A separate example again is Jackie Chan. As sort of a career achievement award I deliberately put myself through every movie he makes, Hollywood or HK, even though as a martial artist he “died” 10 years ago, after “Who Am I?” was released.)

However, I had to personally sit through PJ Harvey’s “White Chalk”, “Is This Desire?” and “Uh-Huh, Her”, and Tricky’s “Angels With Dirty Faces” and “Vulnerable”, AND shill out 30 clams for each for the privilege. While there are reasons for both, (PJ Harvey is a very experimental artist, Tricky is nutso) it still hits a bit harder when an admired musician misses the target by so much.

People also tend to have more personal connections to their favourite musicians, you don’t tend to remember the movie that you watched the night before or after something amazing happened to you, but I can remember vividly the CD that was playing when I got pulled over for speeding 2 weeks after I got my license. (Damn you 12th Man!) If you have something amazing that happened during a movie screening then good luck to you!

But where am I going with this? I guess I am heading towards a low key bagging of Bob Evans’ new CD “Goodnight Bull Creek”.

Disclosure: I am a Big Bob Booster, (that’s alliteration kids!) I have all the Jebediah albums, all the EP’s and singles and a Rarities compilation. I have attended 4 or 5 Jeb’s gigs through the 90’s, one prior to the release of their debut EP “Twitch” in 1996, (and one narrowly missed through an unfortunately timed intoxication). I also have both the “Suburban” albums, “… Kid” and “… Songbook”, and I listen to them both with reasonable frequency.

In fact the main reason for the “Two Guys Arguing” thing was that I knew this was coming out and I wanted an excuse to listen to it more than I usually do with new discs. Having a second opinion gives an excuse to write about the thing.

Goodnight Bull Creek by Bob Evans

The album starts out strongly enough, I like the first 3 tracks a lot, especially track 2 Pasha Bulker, my favourite track on the album. Similar folky/poppy hybrid sound with catchy choruses and forgettable verses, now….

…the problem is though that Bob is trudging down the same path as both previous albums, (never hurt David Gray or 80’s/90’s Hoodoo Gurus), but if you insist on making the same album each time at least make the album as strong as the previous ones. There are 4 tracks on Songbook clearly better than anything on this album, and arguably 3 on Kid.

I’ll let my ipod tell you:

Suburban Kid 2003 12 tracks

10 made the ipod. (Minimum * requirement 3 out of 5.)
5 rated ***. 5 rated ****.

Suburban Songbook 2006 11 Tracks

11 made the ipod. (Surprised even me but indicative of the album’s consistency.)
7 rated ***. 4 rated ****.

Goodnight Bull Creek 2009 11 Tracks

8 made the ipod.
4 rated ***. 4 rated **** (from the first 5 tracks!)

The stats might indicate I rate Kid higher using the law of averages but I actually prefer Songbook due to the strength of the 4 best tracks. (I don’t have to explain myself to you!)

I hate to compare, especially with different artists, but when the same artist makes essentially the same album 3 times it is almost inevitable.

Now with reference to the first paragraphs, this is hardly a balls up of A Tribe Called Quest “The Love Movement” proportions or a “You’re getting cut off!” album like PJ’s “White Chalk” was. I’ll buy the next Bob album if he chooses to make one and I only buy about 10 CD’s a year these days, his track record warrants that, and I am looking forward to the new Jebediah album as much as anything due out in (hopefully) 2009.

I know I will listen to this periodically without grimacing or rushing for the >> button too frequently, with the exception of “Power of Speech”, which is yet to grow on me, that doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to put on Suburban Songbook after it finished tonight.

Final Rating – 7 / 10. No dud tracks, so nothing to annoy Bob fans here, but too “samey” to amaze. This is not a bad album as such, more the sound of someone walking on the spot.