Rating: 1.1 / 5.0Pete Francis had a great thing going when he was with Dispatch. They rode the "college guys with guitars" wave with astonishing success. Since that group disbanded though, Francis, being forced to make it on his (limited) merits as a musician - has sort of fallen off the radar. But he's decided to soldier on; his new album Iron Sea and the Cavalry comes out next week. This song, "Case of Bad Love", is a preview of that album.
Simply put, it's as if Jack Johnson and Jimmy Buffett had a kid who wished he was Bob Dylan (and James Blunt was godfather). This is a work of meandering folk that is worse than Dispatch, and best described by it's own lyrics. Listening to this song is like "waiting for the pot to boil, but nothing's cooking." The song doesn't go anywhere. The arrangement is static and uninteresting (as is the songwriting; it's hard to tell where verse ends and chorus begins), leaving very little to distract attention from Francis's boyish, affected, vocals. He's not the greatest songwriter in the world - there are no hooks or ear-catching melodies here; and the lush harmonies and occasional splashes of horns from his Dispatch days are nowhere on this song.
I can't help but let my cynical side get the best of me and think that if this guy hadn't been in Dispatch, then this decidedly boring song would never have seen the light of day. But I'll reserve my judgment until I've heard the whole record. We can only hope he took some lessons from his days with Dispatch. I can't believe I just said that.
-PTC
No comments:
Post a Comment