Old 97's

Item: Satellite Rides
Author: Michial Farmer

Satellite Rides

(2001)

Reviewed by Michial Farmer

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Label ElektraThe Phantom Tollbooth2001

alternative country pop rock rockabilly

After 1999's bleak, haunted Fight Songs, The Old 97's were about due for a fun summer album, and at first glance, Satellite Rides seems to deliver just that. Songs like "King of the World" and "Bird in a Cage" find lead singer Rhett Miller fighting to overcome his depression, and "Question" is an honest-to-goodness love song--no cheating, no illicit sex, no "going through the motions," as Miller himself put it four years ago.

Upon a closer listen, however, much of Satellite Rides puts a muffler on its six-shooter in the same manner as did its predecessor; namely, it hides its arsenic in the Kool-Aid of its hooks and shimmers. There are no ghosts lurking beneath the surface of these songs, as there were in Fight Songs' "Alone So Far" and "What We Talk About," but "Can't Get a Line" and "What I Wouldn't Do" are both deceptively upbeat, and, in reality, quite devastating. Meanwhile, Miller saturates almost everything in sex, be it double entendres ("Do you wanna meet up at the picwood bowl / We could knock down nine and leave one in the hole") or disturbingly straightforward proposals ("You can go ahead and get married / And this'll be our secret thing").

Other tracks are pretty up-front in their melancholy: Miller is at his most despondent in "Buick City Complex," taking on the voice of a laid-off Rust Belt factory worker grabbing for hope one last desperate time. Bassist Murry Hammond gives up on a relationship (and conjures the spirit of Johnny Cash) in "Up the Devil's Pay."

Musically, Satellite Rides continues in the mainstream pop direction that began with Fight Songs, although there are a few detours along the way: "Can't Get a Line" is a splendid 60s beach song, and "Am I Too Late?" hearkens back to the band's alt. country and rockabilly roots. Other than the latter song, however, there will be little to keep the No Depression scenesters from playing the sell-out card. And, best I can gauge it, nothing would make this band happier.

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