Search - Cherry Poppin Daddies :: Zoot Suit Riot: The Swingin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Shut Up

Private Quentin Tarantino Fan | nowhere | 02/14/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Remember swing music? Yeah, that stuff from the early 20th century? Well, in case you never remembered or heard of it, the swing genre got a short lived revival, started by Royal Crown Revue. Not quite sure when it really started to get popular, nevertheless, here's The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, one of the most untalented bands that ever tried playing jazz.



To be fair, there's some snappy arrangements, in here, which would be: Zoot Suit Riot, When I Change Your Mind, Brown Derby Jump, Master and Slave. That's it. Zoot Suit Riot features some half smooth singning, a catchy chorus, and good arrangements of brass instruments (and pianos, guitars, whatever). When I Change Your Mind is a retro swing arrangement bringing you to the good ol' days. Brown Derby Jump is a rock swing extraganza. Master and Slave features some great horn arrangements with an updated, rock feel.



That's it. Everything else suffers. None of these songs have that interesting playing, they all sound weak and not exciting. I don't expect it to be that original, because there's not much you can do to change swing jazz. It hit it's prime in the old days and no other group can master what Louis Armstrong and the like did. No groups can make you forget the masters, and once your done with checking Mugzy's Move, Hot [ENHANCED CD], or Dirty Boogie, go straight to the legends. Or look into it more. I prefer the first, though the second isn't a bad idea. You never know what lies in the corner.



The worst part of this album are the vocals. Only on the four good tracks does he do something interesting. He's got a good personality as far as dress and his signature strut, but looks don't mean jack _______ if you don't have a good voice. This guy's voice doesn't have any class at all, and when your trying to sing songs like Cherry Poppin' Daddy strut, if you sound like a computer geek who dresses like Steve Urkel, the ladies will run, and the guys will just say "you ________ _____". He lacks a signifciant amount of energy too, and his attempts to be smooth fall flat. He's just plain annoying and forced. And forget rock energy. He has none of that either.



Like the punk revival, most of these bands from this time had nothing to add to the genre besides. To be fair, this band did more than swing, but swing really just doesn't work out for them. Haven't heard the other stuff that doesn't really follow this style, but skip this one. Royal Crown Revue are the only band that really do much for me so far. Check out my review for one of their albums soon. I discovered the revival a month ago or so, and it really doesn't have much to offer yet.



1.5/10"