A big challenge for most bands when recording the follow-up to a successful album is what direction to go. Follow the formula to carefully and they'll be accused of simply rewriting the same album, divert too drastically and they risk alienating their fans. Chicago, Il's The Lawrence Arms had a tough act to follow after 2006's Oh Calcutta!, widely agreed to be the strongest to date in a catalog of strong releases (it kicks ass). Now, after several years and a couple of great side projects, the ramblin' boys of pleasure are back with the Buttsweat and Tears Ep and my biggest criticism is that they've stood pat. The five songs on this disc could easily have been five that didn't make it onto Calcutta. That said, they are pretty great songs, everything I look for from a Larry Arms song: ragged vocals, quirky lyrics, and awesome grimey broke-ass punk rock. I had kind of hoped that guitarist Chris McCaughan would bring back a little bit of his solo acoustic effort Sundowner to influence this release, but the only track that can be called mellow is the last "The Redness in the West" which is typical of the slower songs on LA's releases. For me the stand out tracks are "The Slowest Drink in the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City" (or something like that, christ is it a mouthful) which sounds a bit like "Are You There Margaret? It's Me God" which is about as high as praise gets, and the song "Demons" which wikipedia informs me did not make the cut for the physical 7". So umm. that sucks, but hey, wouldn't you know it, that was the song I was going to post anyway. So everyone wins. Except me. You know if I get sued. Please don't sue me Lawrence Arms. I bought Oh Calcutta on vinyl. That has to count for something. So I guess the moral here is, it's ok not to go too far out of the box, as long as the box was already pretty sweet.The Lawrence Arms - Demons
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Lawrence Arms
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