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Much Afraid
09/16/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Mike Lipton
Following up their platinum self-titled debut, these spiritually-minded, Nashville-based rockers take a modest recipe--simple-but-solid acoustic-based tunes, better-than-average chops and vocals--and, utilizing an abundance of good taste and production flourishes, build it into something greater than the sum of its parts. The first single "Crazy Times" begins with a lone acoustic guitar and vocal before moving through some decidedly
Beatlesque chord changes to its anthemic (and catchy) chorus. Although it's still a bit heavy on the strings, the band--notably singer Dan Haseltine--sounds more self-assured and uses that confidence to let the music stand on its own. At its best, JOC take a more aggressive approach to the nice-guy, melodic Dave Matthews idea. Starting with a good basic tune, "Five Candles (You Were There)" is one of the better examples, with the band employing every trick in the pop song handbook: rounds of lush harmonies, a simple repetitious chorus and an arsenal of subtly-placed instruments. If the tunes are sometimes innocuous, the production icing on cuts like "Frail," which ranges from grandiose and textural to downright beautiful, serves to enhance the tunes rather than obscure them and will easily -- and pleasantly--hold your interest.
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