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Guster
Ganging Up on the Sun
(Reprise)
First Appeared in The Music Box, November 2006, Volume 13, #11
Written by John Metzger
The addition of Jay Bennett caused a seismic shift within Wilco’s sound; the
same could be said of Joe Pisapia’s recent contributions to Guster. Like
Bennett, Pisapia is a multi-instrumentalist whose restless energy has led him to
concoct adventurous, layered arrangements for an outfit that was struggling to
transcend its past. If Guster’s Keep It Together was akin to Wilco’s Being There, then its latest offering Ganging Up on the Sun
effectively serves as its Summerteeth. Further shedding its airy,
conga-driven, folk-pop ways, the Boston-based group has opted, instead, to
slather its rich harmonies and indelible melodies with lush, sonic treatments.
On Lightning Rod, for example, Guster drapes its tightly knit, Beach
Boys-style vocals around the song’s hushed, melancholy ambience; with the
soaring anthem C’mon, it melds together Motown, Jackson Browne, and R.E.M.;
and on the epic Ruby Falls, it captivatingly tucks its Fastball-oriented
power pop inside the gloomy majesty of Pink Floyd before allowing the tune to
settle softly into the refrains of a jazz-inflected lullaby. Elsewhere, The
New Underground bears the propulsive drive of R.E.M. at its peak, and the
country twang of The Captain evokes Rubber Soul-era Beatles as the
guitars, which squall on the former and twirl on the latter, paint psychedelic
trails of color across the music’s wide-sweeping terrain.
Lyrically, too, Guster has matured considerably, and throughout Ganging Up
on the Sun’s 12 tracks, the ensemble wrestles with the new world orders of
its global (Empire State) and personal (One Man Wrecking Machine)
politics. Taken in full, the collective turns the album’s variegated textures
into something that is cinematic in scope. Although the set lacks the sort of
overarching flow that made Summerteeth such a masterpiece, Ganging Up
on the Sun still stands as a landmark effort from a band that many had
deemed too lightweight to matter.  ½
Ganging Up on the Sun is available
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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