From the album title and cover art, you might expect something a little different, maybe a little retro, hopefully a little "groovy" ... but the alternative rock/power pop inside is more like a xerox copy of other bands. Not an identical imitation, but a black and white replication that only captures part of the quality of the originals. The production seems flat and one-dimensional, robbing the band of the ability to make a strong impression. The songs are all more than decent, but at various points during the album you're thinking, "Didn't I just hear this on the radio an hour ago?" That could be good or bad, depending on what you think of radio rock.
There's a resemblance to Plankeye with some of the guitar work and attempts at Collective Soul melodrama throughout (bringing in strings, piano, and beautiful female background vocals). My favorite tracks were the oddballs--the brief, jazzy lounge instrumental "Cafe," and "The Ballad of Uncle Bobby," with its cheesy, awkward robot-rap chorus and more aggressive distortion alongside mis-tuned acoustic guitars. "The Ballad...." is a horrible-sounding song really, but at least they're trying to do something original in it.
A few other songs have welcome creative touches--random guitar licks, vocals, or added noises--but they seem more like afterthoughts than actual elements of the songs. Oh, well.
The lyrics are pretty faith-filled and sung with clean, normal nice-guy vocals. The occasional tone of melancholy is ambitiously assumed. All in all, Groove is one of a thousand modern rock bands who have potential but need to quit playing around with the xerox machine and get to work if they want to amount to anything.
2.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by James StewartIs 'kitsch' cool at the moment? I ask because that's what I thought when I saw the cover and listened to the first track of this album. As the synthesised voice, sampled from a child's toy (they call the track "Generic Teddy Bear"), invited "Come on everybody, let's rock. Rock n roll." I wondered what exactly this album contained.... From there on, most of those associations disappear as the band…The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Mark J. AylorIs pop alternative a proper label? If so, Groove fits this category neatly. I'm not sure I like the combination myself, but some may. Maybe this is supposed to be alternative that just had too much of a CCM production. Maybe it's the sound they want. Either way, that is what you get, which is not necessarily bad. Variety definitely has some moments that caused me to perk up my ears and listen,…
