Seven Mary Three is best known for their biggest (arguably only though Water’s Edge rocked too) hit Cumbersome. The song was the epitome of southern rock with crunching post-grunge guitars and a singer with such a menacing voice it sounded like he gargles with Whiskey for a month before he laid his growl to the record. The fact that the dude rocked a Fu-Manchu somehow made the song even. To this day, you can still hear drunken bar dwellers who can come up with a quarter to put in a jukebox that hasn’t changed its tracks in a decade chant “I have become cumbersome” despite not having a clue what that even means.
Twelve years and five years later Seven Mary Three is still at it with their latest album Day&nightdriving. And what makes the album so disappointing is the loss of that month long Whisjey gargling voice. It is almost as if they replaced the lead singer with someone who takes shots of milk and walks right out of a club if he sees just one person smoking inside. If it were not for Cumbersome, Day&nightdriving would be a decent southern rock jam that is the right mix of rock and roll, country, and folk. But if you love the nineties as much as VH1, it would be hard to listen to the album without hoping that the singer just lets loose the distinctive snarl from their most famous song.
Song to Download - Last Kiss
Day&nightdriving gets a
![Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-iVFV0hXCTSYP16K_V0Rrxp3GqFrtBIJKeTUyQ2LpxZQ9XKHFj6QGtqqa7oxhLadLV8vUj8R84AftD8IKUSfN0u_u0CYDtJwhrpCPN2DBWquAIDv0jbVlhZL0mDFKlPKluGyxw/s400/small_elevated.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
this is very similar to the band's second album, Rock Crown, which is actually my personal favorite of all their work.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first full album of their's I've listen to, but they do get some decent spins on the local rock station and usually liked what I hear. But it is weird that the singer wouldn't reuse that gruff vocal every once in a while for Cumbersome. You just don't hear the bar brawl rock sound from anyone anymore.
ReplyDeleteI miss the growl as well, but I am sure, like many vocalists, he learned that though it sounds cool, he won't have a long career as a singer if he blows the voice. Hehe.
ReplyDeleteListen to the Rock Crown album, which has the single Lucky on it. It is amazing and has some of the best lyrics I have ever heard.
As for American Standard (with Cumbersome and Water's Edge), it is not as solid an album from first to last song.
I guess that makes sense that he would want to save his voice. Legend has it the Beatles would always save Twist and Shout for the end of a concert so Lennon wouldn't lose his voice ealier.
ReplyDelete