Kill Your Idols, The Casualties, The Suicide Machines and Bedouin Soundclash all on the same record label? Side One Dummy Records certainly has eccentric taste. Since when did post-punk thrash coexist with cutesy, Americanized reggae? Put on a pot of coffee; we’ll be here all night.
The label’s fortuitous lapse of judgment attests to Bedouin’s punk-esque, excessively distorted and under-produced debut, “Root Fire.” The record’s lo-fi dabbling is raw and raucous, fierce and at times frightening just like those aforementioned punk dons.
But unlike the caustic “rage, rape and pillage” methodologies of most punk rockers, these Canadian pop-reggae boys take a different route with their most recent release, “Street Gospel.”
Be warned: Bedouin’s third album attempt goes from kind of punk to kind of junk, preaching the same old sermon we’ve heard from better mainstream artists like Snow or even Shaggy.
Although Bedouin Soundclash bounded from its youth, releasing quality road-trip tunes for jumbled iPod Nanos at the very least, “Street Gospel” is too contrived. The album is hollow and feeds audiences stale, emotionless hooks about hackneyed boyfriend-girlfriend perils. At least make it raunchy or provocative like Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me,” guys!
Lead guitarist and vocalist Jay Malinowski’s squeaky vocal reverberations don’t add much to songs like “Trinco Dog” and “St. Andrews.”
Even “Hush,” a Christian-connoted slave spiritual, fails to paint new pictures.
However, there’s good news over that sunny, Jamaican horizon. It’s only when the Bedouin boys halt their frantic scramble to be the white-boy reggae band that dominates the mainstream that this album actually begins to speak for the band’s progress.
The latter half of the album delivers traditional dancehall hits, revisiting the roots the band has previously blazed. “Midnight Rocker” is simplistic yet lavish, hooking listeners with an impulsive bass run and few lackluster lyrics to spoil the mood.
All in all, “Street Gospel” is a bewildering mix of misrepresented reggae and tuneful, traditional tracks that will leave fans confused about the band’s true motivations.
Hopefully, for the few fans the band retains in the United States, its fourth album will quit faking it and prove itself in full.
