Tragedy Ann

Item: Viva La Revolucion
Author: Josh Spencer

Viva La Revolucion

(2000)

Reviewed by Josh Spencer

Discogs Bandcamp

Label Organic RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2000

hard rock post-grunge southern rock

Mikee and Co. try for the third time to get everybody to rock out for Jesus. Big guitars, big drums, and big bass accompany Mikee's much improved singing -- sort of like Metallica's younger country rock brother without the metal foundation and a much shorter melodic reach.

The album follows the pattern of last year's One Nation Under God: start off strong with some great rockers, then throw in some filler, wrap it all up with a few acoustic tunes, and then record the band playing around in the studio for a half hour. The Tragedy Ann formula.

And they do start off well, with track two "The Last Time" actually providing some atmosphere, building energy, and perfectly balanced fusion of southern rock and post-grunge. But it gets increasingly mediocre from there. And it's still fully annoying the way each song bludgeons its simple lyric to death. I've never heard rock lyrics so repetitive.

They do a big southern rock slide-guitar version of the hymn "Nothing But the Blood" before unplugging and playing pretty acoustic pop tune "Why Can't the World Love," country rock worship song "His Face (I Know)," and final track "La Revolucion," which declares "we can all change the world today." Even though I like Mikee a lot and respect the simplicity of his heart and message, the way he puts it to music just doesn't do much for me.

The biggest thing holding Tragedy Ann back, other than their repetitive lyrics, is that they still sound like a well-produced party garage band -- like they're just playing around rather than spending time developing their songs beyond a simple riff and hook. But from the funny studio chatter (and couple extra songs) filling the latter half of the album, it sounds like they're having a lot more fun than most bands. Good for them.