When I first plugged this disk into my deck just outside of SLUG HQ I was really stoked. "Way Back Home," the opening track, was crying out for me to roll down the window and jam down 300 West with a grin on my face and an arm out the window. 

Local Reviews: Gene Swift Band

By
May 2, 2013

Local Music Reviews

Gene Swift Band
Backseat Guru
Swift Music
Street: 2007
Gene Swift Band = Steely Dan + Prozac
When I first plugged this disk into my deck just outside of SLUG HQ I was really stoked. “Way Back Home,” the opening track, was crying out for me to roll down the window and jam down 300 West with a grin on my face and an arm out the window. The second and title track seemed to take it down a notch, but I kept my hopes high. Sadly, my hopes were continually dashed for the remainder of the album. Not that this album lacks quality, the musicianship and engineering are fantastic, but Backseat Guru gets mellower with each song until the point where it feels like it may just stop playing altogether and turn into a collection of ocean noises. I guess I was hoping for a road-happy grin fest and that’s a very narrow standard to hold an album up to. The songs are fine, and the variety of great instruments and voices impressive, I just wanted to tap my foot more often.