Everclear

Most performers feel compelled at one time or another to make their fat-and-happy record,
and it isn't always a bad thing (Exhibit A: Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey). From the sound
and the subject matter of Songs From an American Movie, Vol. One: Learning How to Smile,
it seems as if Everclear mastermind Art Alexakis is at least trying to be happy, if not fat.
Even the songs about troubled love affairs have an aura of hope about them. The... More >

All doubts as to Art Alexakis's punk bona fides are hereby laid to rest--he doesn't have any. Instead he chooses to whup Dave Grohl, the jerk from the Verve Pipe, and if there's any justice Rob Thomas in postgrunge's Bryan Adams sweepstakes. The corn he indulges on this fondly detailed end-of-a-marriage song cycle has nothing to do with abstracted teen agony and everything with classic Garth Brooks, except that Garth never waxed nostalgic for the days he and his honey whiled away watching porn and eating Chinese. Laying on strings, horns, synths, and backup vocals to a fare-thee-well, it makes honest peace with a pop moment when honest pop is the toughest artistic challenge there is. Volume two will supposedly return to the guitar-o-rama of his roots--without any loss of principle, one trusts. (Grade: A-)