Garrison - The Silhouette

While living in Boston, one of my very good friends brought me over a stack of CDs that, I was told, I absolutely HAD to listen to. One of them was Garrison's excellent 2001 release Be A Criminal. On that CD, they had tapped the same producer responsible for the incredible and heavy sounds of Jawbox and Burning Airlines. Armed with this sound in the studio, they definitely put out a CD that gave them their niche, their own personal sound. And usually it's good to try and venture out of your sound, but I think Garrison, a more straight-ahead power-punk-pop rock band, should've left things alone. Instead, they got a little more chaotic and faster and crazier, but not in a great way. One thing I absolutely hate doing is reviewing EPs, and that's precisely I have to do for Garrison. I hate EPs because I'm always wishing they were longer, especially true in the cases where I've already heard the band and I like the band; it's just too much of a tease. I also don't like EPs because if just a couple of the few songs aren't worth listening to, the whole EP becomes kinda blah. This is what happens to Garrison. Their opener, "Come On Die Young", is pretty sweet. It's a lot more aggressive than their past efforts; again, I'll use the term 'chaotic'. And the closer of the album, aptly titled "The Closer", is a case where experimentation can go right for a band. On this track, you get some pretty good tight drum sounds, swirling guitar parts (instead of their normal power chord stuff), and some pretty sweet wails for the vocals. But the three songs inbetween, the only other songs on the CD, are just lacking. It's like they tried to take their previous work and make it slightly crazier and aggressive. They sound like your regular Garrison stuff, but don't have the grit and the sound that made Be A Criminal so damn good. Instead, I have two great songs marred by three un-stellar ones, making this one of those CDs that will get lost in my CD collection. And it may be one I'll rediscover in a year or so, listen to it once for those two tracks, and then forget about it all over again. [www.revelationrecords.com]