 |
|
Trans Am, "TA"
Man, I am so upset. I usually run out and buy Trans Am albums the daythey come out (the only band I do that with!), but their latest albumisSO terrible, SO wretched, SO miserable, that I am actually angry.Personally offended, even. That the band would have the audacity topublish this crap colors my experience of all the other Trans Amalbums. It's depressing! It appears that the irony that has alwayslurked in the background of previous albums is the only quality presenthere. "TA" is entirely reference: "We like OMD, wink wink... overblownMOR rock is funny, wink wink... I'll bet a rap in Spanish would be aridiculous thing to include on one of our records, yuk yuk". A parodyis potentially fine, as long as it offers something deeper than what itinitally appears to be. "Future World", for instance, was certainly aKraftwerk reference, but it's also a great album in its own right. "RedLine" referenced Suicide, but it didn't end there. The Van Halen-likerock-out sections of all the previous albums work because the bandREALLY IS rocking out, and the Stewart Copeland-esque drum workoutsworked precisely because they used the Police as a starting point onthe way to something new. But "TA" is useless. As a joke, it's a thinone. If it's an intentionally unfunny joke, then it fails as that, too.When a band starts writing songs that sound like Loverboy, they areonly as good as the context; so when the context is merely a knowingwink, it's pretentious, it's instantly dated ("remember that time whenit was funny to sound like Loverboy?"), and the songs still just soundlike Loverboy. Sure, there have been entire albums that succeed asparodies of popular genres (the Residents' "Third Reich n' Roll"springs to mind, as does Neil Young's "Trans") and hold up decadesafter they are published, but this isn't one of them. As asuddenly-former Trans Am fan, I feel ripped off and insulted. They werethe one band that I've been sure to catch at every tour, whose albumsand concerts I anticipate. This latest album doesn't appear to be"good" on any level. Bye bye, Trans Am... hello Trans Awful. -
