Long Slow Dance
Mexican Summer
2012
Rating: 6 ice baths out of 10
I'm not sure if it was a wrong turn taken at Albuquerque or what, but at some point The Fresh and Onlys went full eighties. And I don't mean a modern band trying to sound like the eighties, I mean they sound like a band actually from that time whose lost 1986 recordings only recently resurfaced. It almost sounds like a collage of popular "Alternative" bands from that era - and I'm not just talking big-name acts like the Cure, I also hear bits and pieces of Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, and Aztec Camera. On top of that, the recording is way more polished than anything else they've released, a fact that can be viewed as either good or bad probably depending on how you felt about their early albums.
The record isn't bad but I'm not sold on this new version of the band. Maybe it just reminds me of all the bargain cassettes I used to buy at Roses as a kid, anything with a cool cover or an interesting name, and so often it was mediocre at best. I can't imagine I'll be getting an urge to listen to this one too often. Might be time to dig out some old Aztec Camera records though.
