The Mendoza Line - If They Knew This Was The End (Bar/None, 2003)

The Mendoza Line
If They Knew This Was The End
Bar/None
2003

Rating: 6 final years out of 10

Although I was fooled at first as I’ve only paid attention to The Mendoza Line in a very half-ass manner, "If They Knew This Was the End" is the re-release of their debut album, in the fashion that they had intentionally wanted it released. I’m unsure as to why it wasn’t released up to their specs in the first place, but they felt it a big enough issue to see that it got handled appropriately this time some six years later.

This album suffers from an interesting syndrome I’d like to refer to as the "Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde" conundrum, a lesser case of musical "Attention Deficit Disorder". There are plenty of bands out there who put out albums where they jump genres between songs so fast that you don’t know if you’ve just listened to one band or a mix tape. Every once in a while a band might come along that can pull this off, but most of the time it just ends up being a lukewarm mess of over extended song ideas. The Mendoza Line has at least limited their music types to two: Superchunk-style pop/punk and mellow, uninteresting indie pop ditties.

I enjoy the upbeat tracks very much – there’s an energy and a sound present that brings to mind The Replacements covering Superchunk songs, the sort of tracks that after only a few listens you find yourself singing along with the songs whether you like it or not. The mellow tracks, while not exactly bad, just don’t seem to have anything to grab onto. After my first couple of listens of the CD, I found that every time one of these songs came on I wanted to skip to the next upbeat track.

I would say something about how hopefully they’ll drop the mellow crap and stick with the upbeat songs in the future, but since this is a re-release I already know what happens – they land somewhere in the middle and produce likeable but forgettable pop songs with a slight country tinge (with the exception of the song ‘Baby I Know What You’re Thinking’, one of my favorite songs I’ve heard in the last few years and the only reason I hold onto their album "We’re All In This Alone").