Rhett Miller: The Believer (One star)

I know I know, easy target right? And the fact that I decided I hated this album before I even knew it existed also probably makes this review a little unfair, while the album cover makes the music impossible to enjoy. But aside from all of this bias, listening to the record (which was really hard) inspired two questions: 1) when did Rhett Miller start using the Barenaked Ladies as his backup band? And 2) do musicians REALLY sit down in a practice space or a studio and say "ok, now I'm going to write a song for the sole purpose of getting it played on the Mix 102.9 morning show?" I don't know the answer to either, and I'm sure I really don't give a shit.

I used to like the Old 97's when I was a kid, but I haven't listened to them in so long that I don't know if I would like them now. If they sound anything like this, however, well then I guess I can pass off my former appreciation of the band as a youthful mistake, because this album is complete crap. I really don't even have the desire to go through and tell you which songs sucked and which songs REALLY sucked, because listening to it made having this website feel like a job, and writing about it would be even worse. Now of course most of this stuff is completely harmless pop music, and it probably isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. I guess there are some catchy moments here and there, but I just can't believe that people around here still think this guy is cool. This is the kind of music that you hear in the background at the Mall, or Starbucks, or anywhere else you might go to consume products and services. In those settings, you probably wouldn't even notice it. The album is decently produced, adequately structured, and more or less run of the mill adult alternapop that is well written for what it is. Doing nothing else but listening to the album in your room, however, reveals how truly boring it is, and how music that is otherwise meaningless can really be annoying when you are forced to think about it for more than 30 seconds. That is all I'm really going to say about it, because writing bad record reviews should at least be somewhat fun. Any way you cut it, however, this album is even less fun to write about than it is to listen to. And that is saying something.

JR- weshotjr@yahoo.com