North Mississippi Allstars - Polaris

When I look at the name of this band I expect something. I expect to hear soul. I expect to hear blues. I expect… well, expectations can be a bitch. Contrary to what I expected and what I researched, I didn’t hear much “Mississippi” sounds in these all-stars from the North. What I did hear was a decent pop-rock record with some Southern influence, but not a Southern soul. Expectations aside, let’s look at what we are dealing with. Polaris had a weird affect on me. Every single time I would put the disc in to listen I would think, “Ok. This is some catchy stuff. Not bad.” Then I would get distracted and not even halfway through the album I would forget it was playing. It didn’t make me retro vomit. It didn’t make me jump for joy or play air guitar so my co-workers could laugh at me. It was just there. It took the ever-feared title of a background music album. The music is a worthy effort I guess, nothing horrid. It is played well and played fluently, but lacks emotion. The lyrics are not Hemingway or Shakespeare, just typical; love, life, money, etc. A few notable exceptions are the catchy, “Kids These Daze” and “All Along”. Aside from that there isn’t much to scream about, whether it be from praise or scorn. There are even a couple tracks, like “Be So Glad”, that just seem odd and out of place. Rapping, an old blues man singing, reggae, a lot of something, but the result is a lot of nothing. Fans of the band will enjoy the album, although more mainstream sounding than their previous efforts. The casual listener will probably see it my way (and damn straight they should). This is an album that could have been playing in every store you have ever walked into, and to this day you would never have noticed. [www.nmallstars.com]