Cherry Lane
30  (Thinker Thought)

originally published in Space City Rock, Fall 2003

One of my little quirks on listening to an album for the first time is that, if a lyric sheet is provided, I usually try to follow along. The reason for this is lost in the mists of my nascent-dork memory, but I’d guess that it has something to do with forcing me to focus on the vocals and words at least once, since left to my own devices, I wouldn’t pay much attention to either unless they were so exemplary (or reprehensible) that they couldn’t escape my notice. That’s why the prospect of listening to Cherry Lane’s 30 a second time depressed me so.  The vocals, provided by bassist Mike Daab and guitarist Jared Grabb, are terrible; buried in the maelstrom of the Peoria emo band’s anxious guitars and flailing drums and sounding almost as though they were dropped in as an afterthought, they’re tuneless and lack a single attribute to suggest that they would stand out even if they weren’t flanked by noise. Thank goodness for another little music-listening quirk of mine, which is that I don’t even begin to finalize my judgement until I’ve listened to a CD all the way through at least twice. It turns out that when I’m not cringing at the awfulness of the words (“Time spent is now time lost, never to be forgot,” etc.) and the dudes singing them, Cherry Lane reveals a degree of tunefulness and drive that had eluded me before. It certainly would’ve helped, though, if the already similar-sounding songs didn’t bleed into one another. 30 is a decent enough start and is therefore let off with a warning.

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