Fat Possum
Ugh what happened? This album was supposed to rule. Milk Music did you get too high? Is that what happened? There’s just no urgency to Cruise Your Illusion . Where this Olympia Wash. rock band’s earlier songs like “Beyond Living” and “No Life” are taut and brashly efficient much of Cruise is hampered by the stoned contentment to meander. There’s a languid too-early air of reflection that many of these bands succumb to ( New Moon right The Men fans?). Like the album track of the same name they’re exploring that feeling of being “Illegal and Free” soloing with hair blowing in the wind — when you have to actually sing about it it’s the kind of tired nonsense that makes rock music corny as shit. A band shouldn’t have to tell its listeners that they’re rockin’ and free insisting “we’re not that insincere kind” — an astute listener can tell.
There isn’t really an isolated way in which Cruise disappoints which makes this lengthy album even more of a trudge. Not a single instrumental track (of which there are three) leaves any lasting impression and along with songs like “Lacey’s Secret” and “Crosstown Wanderer” Cruise begins to sound a lot like it was sponsored by Guitar Center. Technically speaking the album isn’t “bad” but the spark that made Beyond Living an exhilarating listen is almost entirely absent. Unless you’re part of the drooling Guitar Hero crowd or think that one new Mudhoney album this year just isn’t enough this is quite the limp disappointment.
