In a couple of ways, Galactic Cowboys are living up to the title of this album. According to their website message board, this is their swan song. And they obviously let go in the studio session when this album was recorded. There's silliness galore all over this record, from the hip-hop intro (complete with vocals and scratching) to the self-explanatory "The Record Ends" tune at the end. More studio chatter is included in this album than most B-sides collections. My early reactions (I've only played it about 20 times thus far) to the album are: the silliness is too much. It takes away from the music in one listening. Musically, the album is medium strength. It follows the direction the band went at the start of the Machine Fish era, with slight variation. Lots of energy and unrefined tones to go with the well-timed harmonies and melodic vocal lines. Compared to the musical landscape as a whole, Galactic Cowboys still make music that is superior to most. But compared to their own catalog, I'd rank this one behind At The End Of The Day and The Horse That Bud Bought (Nothing is better than their first two albums, by the way -- the self-titled debut and Space In Your Face). A couple individual songs jump right out as definite highlights ("A Different Way" and "Disney's Spinnin'"), so this synopsis is only based on the album as a whole.
Nobody sounds as good as these guys! The tune "Hey Mr." combines many elements that recall back the first two albums. It's got kids singing a chorus line a la Pink Floyd, and it's got the patented Galactic galloping guitars, stereo-mixed feedback, wall of swirling harmonies, and those catchy candy-coated response vocals of Monty Colvin that match Ben Huggins' vocal lines so perfectly. Why these guys aren't multi-Platinum is beyond me!
"Another Hill" has some more great vocals, and "Dirty Hands" features a too cool guitar line that digs a deep hook into your ears. Songs like the funky "Buckets of Chicken," the tribal into chugging into swinging "Boom!" and snare-thrashing "Internalize" silly up the mix like the studio banter, but certainly break up the sonic landscape. "Swimming in December" is an exhausting 10 minutes and 28 seconds long, mixing beautiful and quiet ambient sounds with heavy balladry. Again, I'm reminded of the epic songs from their first album. "Song for Sybo" continues the ambience for almost three more minutes, which is broken up with a classic snippet from Robert Plant. The acoustic ballad "Future" follows with some of those beautiful harmonies we've taken for granted from these fine singers.
Lyrically speaking, we see more of the Cowboys' morality than in much of their past output. The song "Disney's Spinnin'" especially lets it rip about the kind of entertainment that's impacting our culture: "Looks like now the Beatles weren't so bad / Mr. Manson makes the four look fab / because death and evil is what sells today / And Walter Disney's spinnin' in his grave . . . inconvenienced by a small mistake / mother chooses to exterminate / I wonder what the forefathers would say / the land of the free, home of the depraved / I bet that Disney's spinnin' in his grave." Wow! This kind of talk certainly isn't neutral or PC! Cudos to GC for guts!
Another song with some interesting lyrics is "A Different Way" (featured on this issues's Hard Music Sampler), which seems to express the faith of the members: "I get by in a different way / I get by in this life in a different way . . . I get high in a different way / I've got hope to cope with me every day . . . no other life will ever do / no other way can see me through / no other way."
I don't know what it is about headphones and the seriousness of cranking out a review, but the first 20 listens of this album (in the office while working and the car while driving) didn't do what this 21st listen has done. I think I might have to change my opinion on the ranking of this album. As a whole, it's a lot to swallow, but the strong cuts are so-o-o-o-o-o good... If this is truly their last album together (like Guardian), the Galactic Cowboys will be a hard band for me to let go of.
Other coverage for this album
Art for the Ears 2000Reviewed by Marco PovervestWhat we've got here is the swansong of a phenomenal band from Houston, USA. The title is Let It Go. An appropriate title for such an album and the cover shows a black-and-white photo of a sad looking boy holding three full color balloons in his right hand. The back of the CD shows the boy painted in full screaming colors. He just released the balloons and he's going nuts with the tongue out of…The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Steven S. BaldwinThank God for hard rockers with heart and a sense of humor. Let It Go, Galactic Cowboys' 6th full-length album to date, continues their practice of showing both heart and humor in abundance. The opening track, for example, is a curious loop of spoken word introductory bits and hip hop that is truly funnier to hear for yourself than to try to write about. This track ends abruptly as "T.I.M."…Similar sounding releases
2005Doug PinnickEmotional Animal
2001Stabbing WestwardStabbing Westward
2001YogiAny Raw Flesh?
2002GrypGryp
2001The Benjamin GateUntitled
2000Atomic OperaGospel ColaMore from Galactic Cowboys
1996Machine Fish
1997The Horse that Bud Bought
1993Space in Your Face
1998At The End Of The Day
1991Galactic Cowboys
