Slow Motion Daydream

Not With a Bang, But a Whimper
by: bill aicher

Of the bands to lunge into popularity in the early 90's, not many have survived the years with a continuing record deal in tact (much less one with a continuing stream of marketing money behind it). Everclear, for one reason or another, were one of those few groups to continue to enjoy popularity despite a slowly declining consistency of fanbase.

The largest dive for Everclear was with the 2-disc debacle of Songs from An American Movie - parts one and two. Having misjudged the record-buying public's readiness to embrace such a barrage of self-indulgence by the band, when part 2 finally hit ... well, no one really seemed to care.

Two and a half years later, Alexakis and crew obviously haven't learned much from the experience - except maybe that splitting up their rock leanings and pop forays into separate albums wasn't such a good idea after all. In fact, on Slow Motion Daydream they tend to mix the two more often than before... for every time you hear a cheery little gloss of 70's pop nostalgia there's sure to be that "we're still hard" guitar followup crunch.

What's most evident here, however, is that Everclear are still pretty much a one-note band. It's been said time and time again, but no time would be more true than now: every Everclear song really does start to sound the same. So, if you've heard Sparkle and Fade, or So Much for the Afterglow, or even the lighter end of World of Noise, you pretty much have already heard Slow Motion Daydream. And if the fact that Alexakis has pretty much run out of things to sing about (absurd social commentaries about porno stars gone Republican aside) doesn't bother you, but rather still excites you, then Slow Motion Daydream is just your ticket.

But if you instead realize that good bands usually don't go out with a bang, you're likely realize the more truthful side of Slow Motion Daydream - Everclear's star is fading and they're likely to be the band who just kind of goes away. 30-Mar-2003 9:04 PM