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Arlo | Stab The Unstoppable Hero

Sounding more like artisans than artists.
CD, Sub Pop

Tekst: Eelco van Kappen

Publicatiedatum: 03 oktober 2002

It's sometimes easy to damn a record by faint praise, and in the case of Stab The Unstoppable Hero by Arlo, it's downright mandatory. There's just something about their brand of accomplished but unremarkable powerpop that makes me want to pour gallons and gallons of faint praise on them. In fact, some tracks on this record even make me wish I could drown them in it; grab them by their lily-white necks and hold them under until they stop playing their better-than-middle-of-the-road, chunky guitar hooks. From the opening track Little American, Arlo make their intentions perfectly clear. They want to play easy-to-understand, radio-friendly, solid rock 'n' roll, and have set about this goal with so much industrious zeal that, as a result, they end up sounding more like artisans than artists. Arlo obviously like to play it safe, and whenever there is the slightest chance of something going out of synch or sounding even slightly askew, dangerous, or out of the ordinary, they immediately curb their enthusiasm and flee back to the safe arms of their all-too-familiar territory. It goes to show, that a white liver is just NOT something that allows really great rock 'n' roll.

See what I did there? I went over the top with my criticism. The thing about faint praise is that you should never end up criticizing to such an extent that you forget that there was actually something there to praise, however faint. So I will say this: Listening to Arlo is not a chore — it's even kind of pleasant. And if you enjoy bands like Sloan, the Vines, or the Foo Fighters at their most radio-friendly, I may even recommend this record to you. If the Vines can make the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with a single like Get Free, I don' t see why a song such as Runaround, ­ which is cut from the same cloth, can't be a massive hit as a single. Also, I will point out that the title track has a lazy, slacker charm that you may enjoy, and the opening track is pretty good in its way, just like most of the other tracks are pretty good. However, on two tracks, Arlo clearly overplay their hand: The first one is Working Title, which has one of those awful "big" choruses that get on everyone's nerves. The second one is Up, which is obviously supposed to sound like the Flying Burrito brothers or some other cool country rock from the seventies, but actually sounds like a rocked-up Billy Ray Cyrus. Oh dear, I started going all negative there again! So let me just return to the positive and say that, in general, listening to Arlo can at times be quite agreeable. It's a compliment! Honest!

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/arlo/stab-the-unstoppable-hero/1912/
Meer Arlo op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/arlo