Solarbaby
The Power of Negative Prayer (Teenage USA)
by Marc Hirsh
Solarbaby
The Power of Negative Prayer (Teenage USA)
by Marc Hirsh
never published
What is it about most recent Canadian imports that makes them sing from the back of their necks? Our Lady Peace, The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, even Alanis all vocalize as though there's a large hunk of food blocking their windpipes. Into this proud tradition steps Solarbaby, an insubstantial little guitar pop band from Toronto that features the adenoidal vocal stylings of either Marq DeSouza, Scott Anderson or Justin Clow (neither the liner notes nor the press info tell who does what), the enervated drum stylings of either Marq DeSouza, Scott Anderson or Justin Clow (see above) and a weird, flat sound that automatically subverts any energy that these dinky little songs generally fail to create.
The music's not much, half zippy pop and half acoustic laments that add up to less than a whole, and the words aren't even that. Except for the two songs about how women like to be treated like garbage by men (including the not-quite-rumbling "Gonna Love You," which makes the titular promise so unappealing that it sounds like an unconvincing threat), none of the songs are really about anything, just strings of pseudo-clever wordplay. "Carousels" is the #1 culprit here, with both "I might not be no Einstein, but I also ain't no Frankenstein" and "You like the Flintstones, I take strychnine." There are certainly others to avoid, such as the Stonesy ballad "Mistaken for an Angel," where we hear about "the rooster's crowing cock-a-doodle-doo at the house of Capulet and Montague" being bandied about by the horrible rubber vocals of whoever, and "Outliving James Dean," which has a primary topic that was bested in a one-liner about Mozart that Tom Lehrer made 40 years ago.
Throughout it all, I hear three references to Texas towns and two namechecks each of the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, all fairly pointless (although I remember that Elvis Costello had a thing about shoes at the beginning). Not only that, the singer declares himself king at least twice and announces "Some want to enlighten, some just want to entertain/It's my job to be cathartic." Uh-huh. Sounds like somebody across the border has a bit of an inferiority complex. Work it out on your own, guys, don't force it on the innocent.