Rhubarb Rhubarb

Album review

After releasing a couple singles and the excellent Edwyn Collins/Seb Lewsley-produced debut album Clarietta, Charlie Boyer & the Voyeurs dropped the first part of their name and tightened up their sound considerably. So much so in fact that their second album, Rhubarb Rhubarb, sounds like a condensed and shrunken version of their first. The live and slightly rough sound Collins and Lewsley got is gone, replaced by a smoother, more focused approach. The songs are a little tighter too, with less room for the rambunctious rambling that made Clarietta a little unpredictable and ultimately satisfying. This time out the band spent a bunch of time honing and re-honing the songs for the second album and it shows. When this reduction works, like on the razor-sharp "Stunners" or the chugging "Train to Minsk," the Voyeurs sound like a nice combination of the Strokes and Television, utilizing the best parts of each band. And yes, Boyer still sounds like he's channeling Tom Verlaine's strangulated vocals. Hard. And yes, it starts to wear a little thin this time. Maybe if the music surrounding it were a little more distracting it wouldn't be an issue, but it really is. That's because the bulk of the album sounds tame and overprocessed, like somewhere in the process the craft of writing and recording the songs became the band's main obsession to the point that any passion or excitement seemed like an intrusion. It's a common problem with a band's second album and it's a shame that the Voyeurs have fallen into such an obvious trap and made an album that sounds like a smooth ghost version of their debut. It's not a total loss since there are some good songs, and when the band kicks the energy up a bit, like on "Damp Walls" or "Say You Love Him (And Choke)," it's fun and very reminiscent of Clarietta. Unfortunately, too many draggy songs that take a long time getting nowhere in particular, production so clean you could eat off it, and the general feeling of been there/done that combine to make the record a real disappointment.

© Tim Sendra /TiVo