Search - Acetone :: If You Only Knew

Great shag record

musicburgler | 08/24/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Acetone often get unfairly lumped into the "slocore" category with crap bands like Codeine and Low, for example. Those two bands, however, are just...too...slow. They strum their guitars, wait about twenty seconds, whisper-coo something precious, the strum again, wait twenty seconds, ad nauseum. The music of Acetone is quiet, but very much alive. Bassist Richie Lee and guitarist Mark Lightcap (wait, he might be the drummer; well, anyway) sing great lilting harmonies. They sound like the Beach Boys on smack. The lead guitar work is also magnificent, always rising, falling, or floating in circular patterns. The music has movement: things never get meditative or still, despite the constant quiet and consistent midetempo jazz drumming. And songs like "When You're Gone" are absolutely perfect: the falsetto melodies reach Brian Wilsonesque longing proportions as Lee sings "please say that you wanna, please don't say no." Lee knows how to keep lyrics stripped yet substantive. Which differs from idiots like John Popper of Blues Traveler or Greg Graffin of Bad Religion, who seemingly pick random words out of dictionaries then find their even longer synonym brothers. Actually, that's more Graffin than Popper. Popper's just a windbag. Even when he sings he blows so much hot air I think he's wailing on that little harmonica. But back to Acetone. Their music also achieves a sort of "what decade is this from?" magic. The kind that makes one go out and buy a record player to hear it on vinyl. It embodies the best of old country, soul, and garage rock (frighteningly, the band can tear through a song with ease as well). In other words, don't get scared off from buying Acetone music because you got burnt when buying the Radar Bros. or Codeine's "The White Birch." Acetone are the real deal. Buy this album and file it next to Barry White when you're looking for music to get busy to; I look forward to using it should I ever get action. In the meantime I just get drunk to it. It's great for that, too."

Quiet Ambience and Rumbling Rock

musicburgler | DC | 10/05/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is very quiet even for Acetone. The subtle groove is great though and "The Final Say" rocks out. My favorite is "..All I can Stand" The repeated groove is excellent and the lyrics are cool too. Over half the record was recorded in Nashville and you can detect the country twang. Of course this is very far from country music. Overall it makes you feel good perfect for quiet moments or headphones."