The biggest leap for
the So So Glos on their second release, the EP/mini-album
Tourism/Terrorism, is perhaps a slight step back. Placing less emphasis on the frenetic arrangements that characterized their self-titled debut, one result is broader and more literally anthemic choruses, less crammed with syllables and melodic curlicues. There are still sudden shifts in double-time overdrive ("Execution") and ecstatic climbing melodies ("Isn't It a Shame"), but the sudden sweeps into refrains now put the band in the same territory as the
Hüsker Dü/
Superchunk strain of hook-rich indie rock. Singer Alex Levine, meanwhile, is just as melodramatic as ever. The result, unfortunately, makes them sound less like the gleeful and pop-obsessed band of their first album and more like the kind of 365-marketing-deal-ready act primed for licensing -- perhaps reinforced by their then-deal with faux-indie Warner Bros. subsidiary Green Owl. The band's D.I.Y. roots were deep and getting deeper -- at the time of release they'd just co-founded and lived at the Market Hotel, one of Brooklyn's most notorious loft venues -- but the music, though joyful and filled with the righteous kind of Bush Administration fist-shaking, was hardly a reflection of that spirit, more fully captured on the follow-up
Low Back Chain Shift. ~ Jesse Jarnow