The thing I know least well how to
deal with is mediocrity. It is a perennial truism of reviewers that the worst
things are neither good nor bad but uninteresting, but it does not really help
one resolve what to DO with the boring ones. It is not a problem we have in
daily life. Let’s say you have a coworker, let us call him Mike, who shows up
every day, usually on time, does a decent amount of work with only a few
glaring errors, and is not particularly unpleasant to be around. How do you
feel about Mike? He’s alright, you will probably get to know him, ask him the
odd question around the office, maybe he goes out to lunch with the gang once a
week. You would probably not recommend that they be fired or killed.
Conversely, if you have a coworker, let us call him Steve, who comes in when
the fuck ever, always leaves early, has heinous flatulence, and whose work was
so bad as to be counter productive, you would want them fired, not placed in some
kind of “so bad it is good” category.
Baxter is definitely a Mike. The band is another Sweedish electronica outfit in the vein of Massive Attack, except with none of the interesting features of said outfit. While Massive Attack has intricate, fast paced rhythms expertly layered with rich, creamy melodies and deeply insiteful lyrics, Baxter has moderately interesting beats backing perfectly acceptable melodies in support of lyrics that are, you know, ok. They aren’t bad. They aren’t even predictable. They’re just not that interesting. Its not like they are rhying on “ing” or some other heinous sin against god and nature, and the songs are musically competent. I would say that they even use their tools well. There’s some interesting literary construction on “Television,” and a very nice use of overdubbing on
Political.” There’s just so many other bands out there and I dunno if I seem myself ever going “Man, I really wanna listen to Baxter!”
So what do I do here? Do I sell off this CD? Gift it? Leave it in a public place for someone to find? It’s a shame cos there are interesting things I could say about this band. Like the fact that the main song writer was in a previous band called Salt that made some waves in the American charts with a song called “Bluster.” Except I looked up “Bluster” and it was to grunge what this album is to cool electronica. I dunno it’s fine, I guess, if you are into grunge you’d probably like it. Its not genre defying or anything.
So Fuck. I mean I only bought this album because it had a minimalist cover design and the band had the same name as Ron Burgundy’s dog. But it turns out the album art was like that because apparently in Sweeden all album art is designed by Ikea, and the band is certainly not a tiny Buddha, covered in hair. Meh.
Baxter is definitely a Mike. The band is another Sweedish electronica outfit in the vein of Massive Attack, except with none of the interesting features of said outfit. While Massive Attack has intricate, fast paced rhythms expertly layered with rich, creamy melodies and deeply insiteful lyrics, Baxter has moderately interesting beats backing perfectly acceptable melodies in support of lyrics that are, you know, ok. They aren’t bad. They aren’t even predictable. They’re just not that interesting. Its not like they are rhying on “ing” or some other heinous sin against god and nature, and the songs are musically competent. I would say that they even use their tools well. There’s some interesting literary construction on “Television,” and a very nice use of overdubbing on
Political.” There’s just so many other bands out there and I dunno if I seem myself ever going “Man, I really wanna listen to Baxter!”
So what do I do here? Do I sell off this CD? Gift it? Leave it in a public place for someone to find? It’s a shame cos there are interesting things I could say about this band. Like the fact that the main song writer was in a previous band called Salt that made some waves in the American charts with a song called “Bluster.” Except I looked up “Bluster” and it was to grunge what this album is to cool electronica. I dunno it’s fine, I guess, if you are into grunge you’d probably like it. Its not genre defying or anything.
So Fuck. I mean I only bought this album because it had a minimalist cover design and the band had the same name as Ron Burgundy’s dog. But it turns out the album art was like that because apparently in Sweeden all album art is designed by Ikea, and the band is certainly not a tiny Buddha, covered in hair. Meh.
