Released: 1991
Tracks: Tara; My Sister; Strip Search; Forget Song; Summer Song; Ceilings; Lost Umbrella; South of London; Spirit; Hanging on a Thorn; Marooned; Wine; Invisible
Best track: My Sister
Track to skip: South of London
Oh, the potential. The first half of this album (through Ceilings) is incredible. Beyond that. And then comes the second side…and it’s good, but it’s such a let down. Lemme talk about side 1 first, otherwise known as the “Sunny Side”. Tara is a great opener, fun and playful. And then comes My Sister, probably the best song Davíd Garza has ever written. It’s sad and uplifting and amazingly perfect. I don’t know if the lyrics are about his actual ‘sister’ or not, but he portrays the character and her exploits perfectly in the lyrics. I don’t think he’s played it in over 5 years and he considers it one of the songs “I Wish You’d Forget”. Well, I still love it.
The rest of the Sunny Side is just excellence after excellence. Davíd finally lets out the full Latino stuff out on Forget Song. Great conjunto sounding stuff and a fantastic accordion solo by Jim Cocke. Summer Song has one of the best grooves Davíd has yet written and it was always one the best live songs. And of course Ceilings is so beautiful with some great lyrics.
Then comes the “Rainy Side”. If he had of kept up the energy of the first half, this album might be his best ever. Instead he decided to divide the album into two distinct sides. Sunny is the groovy, happy, full band side and Rainy is the solo acoustic, mellow, downer side. I do think the songs on the Rainy side are good (mostly, South of London is awful), but all in a row and following the brilliance of side 1 really makes them almost unlistenable. It’s just not possible to listen to 7 slow and mellow songs in a row after hearing stuff like My Sister, Forget Song and Summer Song. I have no idea why he made the decision he did, but it really makes the album suffer. I almost want to give 2 grades for side 1 and side 2. OK, Sunny Side gets a 95, Rainy Side gets a 60. You can and should skip South of London, but you might as well just stop the tape after Ceilings and consider it an EP. Otherwise, it’s kind of a downer album. If I have to give a grade for the whole thing I’d say
Rating: 81
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