Review: Audacity - Mellow Cruisers LP

One of the most aw-inspiring beautiful things about music is the very notion that it captures the artistic thoughts, feelings, and over-all emotions one connects with the melodic elements of instrumentation's of the variety.

Now enough of that sophisticated bullshit banter, LET'S TALK about Audacity's 2nd LP that dropped last year on both BURGER RECORDS & RECESS RECORDS. Mellow Cruisers quite possibly is one of those very creations finely perfected after playing a select variety of songs with gems kept off 7"s but rehearsed to a nirvana. This LP does not have one song that was "just thrown on there for the sake of filling up minutes", because let's face it. That is not how Audacity rolls, there is no filler. Granted after being a band for a decade since youth this is something built over time with years of practice, playing shows, and the inevitable experience. No joke they set-up within 5 minutes and begin playing live too! Now onto the LP...

Songs like "Indian Chief" presents to the listener the this notion of leading the pack, sticking out, and being an alleged under-class hero where fun is universal and that feelings are obsolete, we as a pack can lead past the burdens placed upon us.

PTP? Photo featured as a fold out poster on the LP

"Garza Girls", "Punk Confusion", and "Subway Girl" all tread on the topic of females from the male perspective. Garza Girls is the male's anthem for the girls that they talk about amongst their male peers that are met through professional interactions. "I dont mind when the sun don't shine, I just want to see your speaking mind." The professional world rarely consists of human interaction let alone a talk with a lovely female of some assortment. Punk Confusion follows the theme of well that girl that one just cannot "get out of my mind". With a Power Drowning esque riff pounding the back-burner while the vocals let out this fiery of confusion between love, sex, and well the various problems associated with young adulthood and the opposite gender. Subway Girl is about that well mysterious in the moment female we meet in our day to day lives that we could essentially give our "all" without really suffering any direct consequences. Out of all we choose to sexually derive the opposite of sex's that look us in the eyes with smiles and we just want to put our hands out and tell them, "It's okay".

Honestly both side A and side B are good enough to listen to completely on their own separately in two different sessions over and over again as the precision musically, upbeat automatic feel, and relatable lyrics that make AUDACITY such a good band. "Persecuted" treads on the topic of humilation because of the very idea of sexual release. "Just cause it's stopped doesn't mean it's over". This idea of the one-night stand extended, however a short but simple explanation of why things can't work.

SXSW

"Funspot" is the feel good song that brings back the upbeat motion on Mellow Cruisers with lyrics about living in the moment, never pausing or stopping but just doing. "Grow, you ain't no John doe make it for your own sake. Show, everything you know, take it for your own stake." short, sweet, but powerful as a sing-along chorus.

"Ears & Eyes" hits me close to home, because it starts off with the line, "Decisions, they're not worth deciding. Is what's hiding really hiding." which if any of you that have yet to choose on a career, finish college, or really do anything aside from graduate from high-school it almost makes you mentally tear up. Quickly the topic of adulthood is shedded with the phrase ending the first verse, "they take our youth". Panning now to a scene of a classroom placing the viewer as a student listening to a dull minoginous teacher ramble off as the student dazes out the window at a beautiful "meadow" where he/she could be. "I always thought this was a free world, funny how perspectives change so fast" as one realizes the structure they have lived up until the age of 18 and societies very expectations. Now you are sitting listening the valid victorian speech is being read and this concept of adulthood is now being thrown into your face at rapid pace and "can't remember what you said, your acceptance speech." and it was driven into the faces of the future do-gooders of society yet no-one wants to confront this.

ALSO! AUDACITY IS ON TOUR! CHECK EM' OUT IF THEY'RE CLOSE TO YA!

WEST COAST TOUR WITH MAN OR ASTRO MAN!
05/09/13 Thu PHOENIX, AZ The Crescent Ballroom
05/10/13 Fri LOS ANGELES, CA The Echo
05/12/13 Sun VISALIA, CA The Cellar Door
05/13/13 Mon SACRAMENTO, CA Harlow's
05/14/13 Tue EUGENE, OR Cozmic Pizza
05/15/13 Wed VANCOUVER, BC The Biltmore
05/16/13 Thu BELLINGHAM, WA Wild Buffalo
05/17/13 Fri PORTLAND, OR The Doug Fir
05/18/13 Sat SEATTLE, WA Neumo's05/25/13 Sat SAN FRANCISCO RICKSHAW STOP MIKAL CRONIN RECORD RELEASE SHOW!

Listen to Mellow Cruisers here!

BUY the album HERE!

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Written by John Williams