When the novelty of a group of Emos playing this kind of music bears thin, we can be forgiven for thinking that the Boulder Acoustic little more to offer. Think again. Listen to this album carefully, carelessly, without care, whatever … and let the only musical this wash over you.
A mixture of tradition with an urban take on the particularly country music, BAS is a low-home, messed up version of Barenaked Ladies to spit a little more and a little less polished. The faux-jazz inflections of ‘Caged Bird’ twist and turn every corner, “Drinkin Trash,” a hilarious tribute to the youth and teenage alcoholism, is raucous, rowdy and clever in equal measures, a modal take on “Maggie’s Farm” is fun if oblivion, and the soul of the country “in the year of Our Lord” and “Sing It Sweet”, which recall the early exit of The Band, the punctuate ‘album with reflective beauty.
Schizophrenic sometimes to the point of bewilderment, but ultimately rewarding, BAS undoubtedly offers something new and vital for a genre that, outside its most rebellious protagonists, a lot of promises, but few offer. Abandonment, good honest fun and a sense of mischief have rarely sounded so sweet.