Sundry

Item: The Toughest No-Brainer Yet
Author: Chris Well

The Toughest No-Brainer Yet

(2000)

Reviewed by Chris Well

Discogs YouTube

Label True Tunes Records7ball #31July/August 2000

heartland rock modern rock rock roots rock

At first glance, there's a danger of Sundry being thrown into the earthy-heartland-rock bin with, say, The Wallflowers and Third Day and Smalltown Poets. Which, of course, is not bad company. But, as demonstrated on their label debut, The Toughest No-Brainer Yet, the boys in Sundry are all about exploring their musical options. Firmly anchored in meat-and-potatoes rock 'n' roll, most bands would feel the need to choose between sticking close to that anchor or to just yanking it out of the ground altogether.

The members of Sundry have grabbed tightly onto the exhilarating third option: Enjoy the safety of having that anchor, then see how big a circumference the tether will allow. Consequently, you have a dynamic range and a variety few rock bands can achieve without sounding scattered or unfocused.

The songs themselves are sonic epics of love and faith and life: The passionate "The Drive," which builds in Live fashion, details the final miles leading up to a tearful reunion; "Enough's Enough," with its playful verbiage, is a funky argument for the faith; the sweet "Drifting" is a prayer of thankfulness, escalating all the while to a big rock finish.

Guest vocalists Mac Powell (Third Day) and Michael Johnston (Smalltown Poets) add to the mix, as do a variety of guest musicians (a piano here, hammered dulcimer there), all of whom contribute to the "earthy-heartland-rock" anchor. Which is good, because it gives the members of Sundry a lot of room to experiment. All told, The Toughest No-Brainer is a pretty audacious debut.