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EDIT INFOJayhawks - Rainy Day Music
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Album Details
- Artist: Jayhawks
- Album: Rainy Day Music
- Label: American / Lost Highway
- Year of Release: 2003
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-05-07
RecommendWhen one of your favorite bands puts out an album it is really difficult not to just give it the best review ever. My history of the band goes something like this: I was introduced to Tomorrow The Green Grass and absolutely hated it. Later that year I headed off on a trip across Europe and found a tape copy of the album with me and fell in love with the harmonies of Gary Louris and Mark Olson. I've been a fan ever since. I, like many others, was saddened when Mark made the decision to leave the band. I was delighted to find that Gary and Marc Perlman were going to carry on with The Jayhawks but a little apprehension was also present. Rainy Day Music marks the third post-Olson Jayhawks album and I'm sure the guys haven't looked back. In fact Rainy Day Music could rival the likes of Green Grass as one of the finest Jayhawks releases to date. The band has made a change again with Kraig Johnson andJen Gunderman leaving the folds. Gary must have thought it time to look at where they were heading. They actually dropped some of the more poppy sounds that could be found on Smile in favour of a rootsier feel. The album starts out with one of the strongest songs "Stumbling Through The Dark" (co-written with Matthew Sweet) that has a Byrds feel to it. Is it my imagination or does "Madman" sound like a Neil Young song with him singing? Tim O'Reagan takes a crack at complete writing details on a couple of tracks and it find him almost up to Louris' standards, but not quite. Rainy Day Music is a return to form for The Jayhawks. Hurry because the first pressing has a bonus 6 track CD with a couple out-takes and live versions.
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on 2011-12-31 CharlesMartel Said:
When I started to rediscover the sounds of early nineties American alt. rock which wasn't REM or Nirvana, I came across a few bands which had crossed my radar some years before - the Connells and the Gin Blossoms being the obvious ones - and also encountered a few I had not heard of. The most notable of these was the Jayhawks. Now people who knew said that they were among the best of American alt. country you could find, and this was something which interested me enough to go and check it out.
I started with "Rainy Day Music" . Kind of odd, don't you think, to start at the end, for this was to prove the Jayhawks' last album. To be honest I was startled. I had always imagined country music to sound a little rough around the edges, but this was polished and extremley well-produced: too well-produced as it turned out. There are some fine songs on here, " Angelyne " and " Save It for a Rainy Day" being the obvious stand-outs, but is this anodyne. The whole album has been spoilt by intense over-production which has squeezed the life and soul out of it by smoothing off every rough edge they could find.
This is not so much an album to be played as a totem to be hung on the wall and admired. It should have won awards for the production, awards which recognise the skill of the producer without paying any attention to the end result. What this album needs, but sadly will never get, is a reissue as a complete live performance. Then we would hear the songs the way they were meant to be heard and I am sure that every single one of them would benefit thereby.
Inside every song on this album is a potential gem waiting to get out. "Rainy Day Music" marked a return by the Jayhawks to the sort of music they played when they started out their career. But they surely never realised what it would end up sounding like when they stepped into the studio. As it is, this is a warm and comforting album, one that will not disappoint anyone who enjoys alt. country and wants something pleasant to listen to as part of a background to another activity. But I fear it does not withstand a careful listen for the faults I have identified. And that it a real shame for this album could have been so much better.
Rating: 6/10
