September 20th is a big day for Never Shout Never. Release date for the new LP "Time Travel", the fans will be be finger poised at midnight to click on this beauty. Or will they?
I've struggled for words on this one. My love hate relationship with Drew and his accompaniment often fluctuates more than New England temperatures. Today.. well today I find it rather lovely, well some of it. The opening title track "Time Travel" sounds perfectly pop. Just a smidge of techno Bowie nod in the background I think. The voice is still a bit too yodel but by dropping it to a sane level, Christofer Drew sounds like a man. The 'sell my soul to rock and roll' is the most pathetic lyric but it does rhyme well but other than that silly bit- the song is very strong.
"Awful' has a hippy dance swirl too it. Unable to fit into a specific generation is a great thing. But the problem is Drews voice, right back up in the nasal cavity like a toot of snow off a hookers ass. Adding techno twitter made this song live up to the title. It almost sounds like a theme song to a bad television show.
I can say there are a few songs worth hitting the right aimed button and and I'm not ashamed to admit I have don't just that to 3 songs on this release. That's less than 50% so that isn't too bad in my book. Again, I have had so many encounters with this boy I could qualify as a distant Aunt or something. I root for him, he can do it if he would simply step down from the ego box, knock off the cutesy nasal voice and really throw it in to man gear. C'mon son, you can do it. Is the fear of showing testosterone in order to keep the girlies screaming at his feet? I hope not as that would be a total waste of talent.
Instrumentally the song "Robot' is hands down winner. A nice kaleidoscope of sounds reminiscent of intro's and outtro's of 70s mega bands and its damn intentional. Vocals? No thanks- twang.
So what have I deemed unworthy of being on recorded material? "Awful, "Silver Ecstasy", and "Until I Die Alone". Three songs I just couldn't tolerate. Annoying and instant bad mood in stereophonic sound.
"Time Travel", is not horrible. It also isn't great. As angry as it made me is as happy as it made me. The title song and "Complex Heart" and "Lost at Sea" are the strongest songs. So we're welcomed and dismissed on high notes- but the inbetween is a confused mess.
I'm going to grade this a C, but there is extra credit potential if Drew would just embrace his lower voice.
Rolling Stone is streaming it for free right here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-album-stream-never-shout-nevers-time-travel-20110916