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Where Have All The Merrymakers
01/01/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bob Gulla
Keep it simple, stupid. That seems to be what the good Seattle boys in Harvey Danger seem to be saying. Of course, keeping it simple means radio fans everywhere will hear your song once and, for better or worse, hum it for a week. The melodies on the band's debut rule the roost, so much so that arrangements, musicianship and, hell, even lyricism, play a secondary role. There is, however, a lot of good energy and rattling dynamics at work; "Carlotta Valdez" sounds like a Romantics ("What I Like About You") outtake, and the ghost of the Association lurks on the crunchy baroque pop of "Flagpole Sitta." Some tracks, "Wooly Muffler" in particular, sound kinda like Sonic Youth backing the Posies with King Missile's John S. Hall on vocals. But, ultimately, Where Have All TheMerrymakers Gone? is so heavily coated with sugary melodies a la Weezer, so void of actual depth and substance, it's almost criminal. Where, say, the Posies could infuse their melodies with beauty, skill and bite, Harvey Danger offers only beauty. And with so many of today's modern rock bands tossing off little more than skin-deep hooks already, the frustration has indeed reached the breaking point.
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