When Limbeck began at the turn of the millennium, the SoCal quartet were touching up their pop/punk sound with Cheap Trick-flared energy to great effect, but a funny thing happened when Limbeck hit the road. Crammed in a van stocked with seminal country music, Limbeck began to absorb and translate the profound twang of the influential country artists on their tape deck. As a result, Limbeck has increasingly moved toward a more alt.country centerpoint while retaining elements of the juiced up power pop/punk they began with seven years ago. With Limbeck’s eponymous fourth album, the band has completely integrated their two loves into a pumped up Americana output that stomps and shivers like Adam Schlesinger’s vision of a Big Star tribute hootenanny with the Trick, the Shins, Rhett Miller, Jeff Tweedy and Paul Westerberg all pumping up the country jam in the house band. Whether full throttle rockers (“Wake Up,” “Keeping Busy”) or gentle country/pop ruminations (“Reading the Street Signs”), Limbeck applies their considerable skills and influences with equal measures of raucous abandon and thoughtful subtlety. Call them the New 97s or Grandson Volt or Little Star if you like, so long as you call them. Limbeck is ready for their big time close up.
Brian Baker
Here’s this - I have nothing against the use of slide guitar & organ when recording an alt-country album. In fact, they should be there, as they’re the two defining instruments (outside of the occasional use of banjo or mandolin) of the entire genre. But like the abuse of indulgent riffing in metal and booty references in hip-hop, when a band starts to rely too heavily upon tired clichés and safe, cushy formulas, the end result is drastically weakened. We find another case in point with the eponymous third release from the band Limbeck - it’s an album that initially fires up with solid songs and accessible music, yet begins to settle into cruise control before the midway mark, boring listeners and potential fans with minimal derivation in chord progression or tempo. It’s certainly not that Limbeck lacks talent; they just seem a bit too content with that talent, refusing to let it soar and test the limit of their style. It’s a rare treat to hear musicians challenge themselves sonically, especially when they have it in them. All of the great organ swells and tremolo-soaked lead lines in the world can’t mask such a deficiency.
Adam P. Newton
Buy Album from CD Universe
