Moving away from the pastoral, psychedelic pop of their Welsh compatriots
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, the
Big Leaves and
Super Furry Animals,
Liberty 37 sound like their biggest influences are American alt-rockers along the lines of Creed,
Live and the rest of their post-
Pearl Jam ilk. Singer Ishmael Lewis has certainly perfected that kind of sub-
Eddie Vedder stentorian bellow that made alt-rock radio such a dull and samey place over the latter half of the '90s, and the clichéd lyrics are similarly familiar. A few songs manage to rise above the mire -- "When We Say" is actually a pretty cool little power pop number with the album's most memorable chorus, and "ABC. . .Giant Steps" sounds like a less pretentious version of early
Radiohead in the way it marries soft acoustic passages with louder blasts -- but most of the album is real tribute-band stuff, with occasional lapses (as on the interminable, plodding closer "Seize the Day") into pure ghastliness. ~ Stewart Mason