GREENLAND - CRACKER
What’s most surprising about the new Cracker album is how focused, tight and rocking the 14-song collection is given co-leader David Lowery’s bleak overarching theme — a regrettable past mired in booze/dope/hangovers and marred by heartbreak. “Greenland” opens with its best song: the country-twanged “Something You Ain’t Got,” the sole, apropos cover penned by American Minor’s Rob McCutcheon. The rest is easily Lowery’s most personal conveyance. Recurring topics: relationship strike-outs, cops breaking up bashes, reflection (the gem “Night Falls” in which misery “comes right out of my mouth like butterflies”) and caffeinated hope (the reggae-inflected “Better Times Are Coming Our Way”). Lowery’s humor also surfaces, as in his yam-filled car on “Everyone Gets One for Free.” Fellow Cracker founder Johnny Hickman is featured on glinting guitar.Billboard
