With a Little Peace, and Some Harmony

Recently, I review the latest Hootie and the Blowfish album (State Your Peace) and was disappointed with how mediocre Lucking for Lucky was, giving it a Terror Alert: Elevated. Granted I may be a little harsh on the band considering they were my favorite band for most of the mid-90’s. The three albums that Hootie released in the 90’s, Cracked Rear View, Fairweather Johnson, and Musical Chairs get massive play from my CD players to this day. In the new millennium, the boys have been spotty, at best, except for Darius Rucker’s solo album, but at least we have their earlier work, in including their debut, Cracked Rear View, which is September’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.

The album starts out with an explosion of sound in Hannah Jane then transitions into the three big hits off the album beginning with the biggest of them all Hold My Hand. I remember hearing them performing the song as an unknown band on Letterman one night and made my way to the local record store the next day. The song, aided by David Crosby on backing vocals, slowly became an anthem for drunk people everywhere, especially frat houses. The song was followed by equally big Let Her Cry, the go to break up song of its time. Hootie got back to the upbeat pop with the next song, Only Wanna Be with You, whose ESPN themed video still remains one of the most entertaining videos of all time. Of course Dan Marino was featured to clear up the line, “I’m such a baby, yeah, the Dolphins make me cry” because crying for men is only socially acceptable when its sports related.

Even beyond the big three, the album is very listenable and doesn’t feature a song that worthy of the skip button. Running from the Devil, with its violin and bongos, give the song a down home feel, and I love how Darius delivers the line “I gave up on you along time a go, but there’s something I want you to know.” Every great pop record isn’t complete without a monosyllabic chanting, and I’m Coming Home delivers that with it’s, “Sha la la, sha la la,” chorus. The song is another good down home sing-along. Look Away starts earnestly enough with, “Saw her standing there,” and continues from there with a mellow look at a failed relationship that shouldn’t be ending.

Being in a pop band, Darius and the boys aren’t afraid to talk about serious topics. Drowning deals with living as a black man in the South and asks the important questions such as, “Why is there a rebel flag hanging from the state house walls?” The song later features a line that has puzzled me for years, “PE’s coming.” I’ve been wondering since I’ve first heard it if PE stands for Public Enemy, another group that talked about the plight of the black man. Time, which I believe was the tenth single off the album, also deals with some tough subjects such as, “Children killing in the street, dying for the color of a rag.”

The album closes with a couple of sadder songs starting with my favorite track from the Cracked Rear View, Not Even the Trees. The song deals with the loss of a loved one. The song was very conforming to me as I lost a few friend and family around the release of the album. There were many times I would rewind the song to hear the lyrics, “Does he realize, he came down and took you too soon.” I love hearing this song live as Darius slows this line down to give it an extra impact. The official closing song, Goodbye, is the perfect closing time anthem set against an elegant piano melody. Just a great, cry in your beer type of song that is easily relatable to any college aged person. “So baby while we’re young, lets figure out together.” The album really comes to a close after Darius gives a soulful acapella version of the old standard, Motherless Child.

Over the years, people have drifted away from Hootie and the Blowfish in a case of being too big too fast and a natural backlash came. This was unwarranted as the boys never presented themselves as anything but who they were, a bar band from the South. All of their songs sound better in a bar as the album deals with great college experiences that will eventually happen in your local watering hole. Even though they haven’t put out a quality album lately, the boys can still pull off a great live show as I seen them throw in covers such as Soft Cell’s Tainted Love and Stone Temple Pilots’ Interstate Love Song showing their strengths of a bar band. In fact, their cover album, Scattered, Smothered & Covered, rivals their earlier albums in quality. And then there is the video Summer Camp with Trucks featuring a show circa their major label debut which is also worth checking out if just hearing Darius trying to rap. But it’s Cracked Rear View that has the greatest impact on my life and thus makes it a worthy entrant in the SHoF. I still consider this group of songs as the most perfect pop-rock album ever made.

State Your Peace

Back in 94, I was watching Letterman, which I did obsessively back then, and caught a brand new band perform one of the most refreshing song I’ve heard for the longest time. The next day, I strolled down to the local Borders and picked up Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View. For me, it the best pop album ever made, any song on it could have been a hit. From there, I religiously drank the Hootie kool-aid, buying up shirts, hats, towels and playing the album for anyone who would listen. Months later, as everyone knows the story by now, they exploded with Hold My Hand, Let Her Cry, and Only Wanna Be with You getting played on the radio about once every half an hour. I had one buddy of mine told me he knew Hootie was over exposed the moment his sister bought their CD.

With Fairweather Johnson, the band expanded their horizon taking more chances. Same goes for Musical Chairs although there were some missteps on that album. By the time their self titled album came around, it seemed they had fallen into a rut. None of the songs really stood out or compared with earlier triumphs. Darius Rucker did bounce back on his solo album, Back to Then, so I did have hope going their latest album.

But the boys settled back into their self-titled rut with the release of Looking For Lucky as there are not many stand out tracks that are on par with their earlier work or even Darius’ solo project. Leaving comes close with its bluegrass influence and harmonies by a female vocalist. The closer, Waltz into Me feature a mandolin set to, obviously, a waltz. Get Out of My Mind is the best “pop” song on the album. But the other songs just seem to run into each other and before you notice, the album is done.

Hootie has become more overtly political on this album. Granted that have touch on issues such as racism in the past, but they were at times subversive. The opener, State Your Peace, is an ode to our first amendment rights. Yet a couple songs later, they also encourage people to make sure they watch what they say with The Killing Stone. Another Year’s Gone By, which has a great guitar hook, is about dealing with the effect that 9/11 had on our society years after the fact. Looking for Lucky, as a whole, is better than the self titled album, but I’m still waiting for something as good as the albums they made during the 90’s.

Song to Download – Leaving

Looking for Lucky gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.