RockCrown

Review by Alphonse Leong

I know these guys are American, but this disc sounds a lot like the (all-Canadian) end product of a Tragically Hip/Blue Rodeo collaboration. Indeed, title track "RockCrown" could have been an early working version of the Hip's "Little Bones," while "Needle Can't Burn (What the Needle Can't Find)," "Oven" and maybe five or six other tunes have that Blue Rodeo urban folk quality. But, where those two bands create songs that sound fresh and alive, Seven Mary Three seem to be just pulling out borrowed tools and cranking out reasonable facsimiles.

Although, with lyrics like "Get down and pray to the oven" and "My good looks won't save my kids from their dad's predicament," I betcha all the "cool" rock critics are doing somersaults over this record.