Every now and then, it's good for a critic to have to pull out a dictionary when writing a review--not for the sake of putting high falootin' words into the text, but for making sure you know what the artist is saying. Model Engine (formerly known as Black Eyed Sceva) frontman Jeremy Post is a guy with a lot to say and he often doesn't express himself in ways you've heard before. Over the past year, Sceva morphed into Model Engine, mostly, according to Post, because they got tired of explaining the name. They also changed drummers and briefly became a four-piece, but reverted to a trio for the finishing of The Lean Years Tradition. While the album title may reflect its contents, there's nothing lean about the individual tracks. Post (guitar, vocals), Brad McCarter (bass, vocals) and new drummer Erik Herzog play very intelligent pop music. Although often likened to The Police, the dissonant yet hooky sounds of XTC might be a better comparison. Herzog's tricky cadences often dictate not only how Post sings but how he constructs his rhyme schemes. Lean Years, with its themes of band dissention ("Weathervanes"), romantic tension ("Scarred But Smarter") and Post's impatient quest for personal holiness ("Drawing Lines"), is not an especially cheerful album, but neither is it morose and depressing. Songs such as "Anonymous F" and "Suture," in particular, borrow liberally from the psalmic tradition of recounting one's woes, then seeking the Lord's help to grow. On only their second full-length album, Post and company successfully walk the line between being clever and too smart for their own good.
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1997Reviewed by Steven S. BaldwinWith The Lean Years Tradition, Model Engine manages to maintain a perfect blend of poetic lyricism and pop appeal with their powerful playing. No mean feat. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: They play modern rock and roll like a battered old Fifties pickup truck tooling down the highway at top speed with chicken coops rattling around in the bed. There is an appealing sense of reckless…The Phantom Tollbooth 1997Reviewed by Linda T. StonehockerThe Lean Years Tradition is a progress report on Five Minute Walk Records' premier band's dues-paying journey. "Hang You Upside Down" sums up the reward for all this hard work: "Underneath the weight of everything we're turning black coals into diamonds and we're sifting through the remains and picking out the pearls when we find them." Those pearls include being "Scarred but Smarter," thanks to…Similar sounding releases
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