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May 3, 2007
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Animal Liberation Orchestra, Roses and Clover Forever wrestling with an uncomfortable dependence on Jack Johnson for survival, ALO should by all rights be Grateful Dead: The Next Generation by now but aren’t. Their unworried, technically adept mall-jam fluff still doesn’t adopt the Harry Nilsson eccentricities of their platinum-selling college buddy (Johnson gave them a spot on last year’s tour, as did Dave Matthews), preferring to stick with unabashed innocence. Zach Gill’s voice is Burl Ives sans nasality but with all the heart, showing traces of Randy Newman in spots, most notably on the title track. Roses and Clover is painfully commercial in comparison to 2006’s Fly Between Falls, in which guitarist Dan Lebowitz chummed a perpetual current of Jerry-meandering into the band’s feel-good jazz, bluegrass, and prog-rock spazz-outs; in the tight confines of this record his rank’s been reduced to metronome-following side-guy, keeping time to a bunch of semi-hooky radio bait that’s been a staple of hackdom since rock n roll discovered the world outside 12-bar blues. C+ — Eric W. Saeger |
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