Moon Taxi, 鈥淪ilver Dream" (BMG)
Moon Taxi have a new album with a dozen songs, but you may be forgiven for losing track of them.
One unmemorable, formulaic tune bleeding into another leaves the listener underwhelmed by the effect. Has it been 20 minutes, really? How many bland songs have been offered?
But perhaps 鈥淪ilver Dream鈥� 鈥� the Nashville alt-rockers' sixth full-length album 鈥� is not intended for music lovers. The band has already sold the single 鈥淥ne Step Away鈥� to ESPN鈥檚 SEC Network for coverage of college football.
That deal is just the latest in which deep-pocketed brands have snapped up Moon Taxi music 鈥� Maker鈥檚 Mark, Jeep, Microsoft Surface Pro, BMW and McDonald鈥檚. Is this the real silver dream of the title?
We are witnessing the natural effect when a band loses the last of its edge, lured into writing mainstream fluff. They even have a song on the new album called 鈥淭ake the Edge Off.鈥� It's all the musical equivalent of the gradual bleaching of coral.
After the sadly underwhelming 鈥� sonically we mean, clearly not monetarily 鈥� album 鈥淟et the Record Play鈥� in 2018, there was a glimmer of hope in 2019 that the band had righted its course with the terrific song 鈥淩estless.鈥� But that was a false dawn.
Moon Taxi just doubled down on mediocre, dad jeans alt-rock and are now so distant from their brilliant 2012 album 鈥淐abaret鈥� that it's too far for a taxi to drive. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a long walk back from yesterday,鈥� lead singer and guitarist Trevor Terndrup seems to acknowledge on the new album.
So let鈥檚 just call them what they really are right now: jingle writers.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
