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54-40 - smilin' buddha cabaret

 

hit and miss

eeeeeeeeeeeeye, eye-eye-eye've got an ocean prrrrrl...

it's easy to forget that "grunge" was a north-west phenomenon, not a strictly seattle one. geographically, vancouver is actually closer to seattle than portland, oregon is. of the handful of "grunge" bands that came out of vancouver in the early to mid 80s, 54-40 is probably the most well known and this record, which was massively successful in canada, is probably their most well known, as well, due to the track ocean pearl, which seemed to be on every radio station and every television channel for most of the summer of 1994. while they're not afraid to hit a harder edge sound that i find most reminiscent of mudhoney, the act generally operates in REM territory, mixing straight-ahead alternative rock with acoustic ballads, jangle pop and the odd little studio trick.

while a profound part of my early teenage alt-rock leftist programming, the record doesn't really stand up to too much scrutiny all these years later. there are actually quite a few different styles present here, but somebody else did all of it better somewhere else. U2 did blame your parents better, the ramones did radio luv song better, nirvana did assoholic better, neil young did once a killer better, REM did punk grass better (on monster), sloan did lucy better, pearl jam did beyond the outsider better, soundgarden did don't listen to that better, my bloody valentine did save yourself better, etc. in a sense, the disc works well as a gen y primer to alt. rock, but there's no reason to recommend it ahead of the other, much better records that were released in 1994. on the other hand, if you want to seriously explore 54-40, the better material is all in the 80s.

that being said, the record does have a strong point in it's largely satirical lyrical content, which has some fun with tearing down various aspects of popular culture. this is the actual appeal that the record still has to me, all of these years later. unfortunately, though, the disc is heavily front-loaded. the last four tracks just don't have the bite that the first four do. there's a strong argument that the disc should have been an ep, and it would have been a very good one if it was one.

lastly, please heed this warning: listen to ocean pearl at your own peril, as it WILL get stuck in your head for weeks.

stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Z7U15ut3k&list=PL7epfunGutqmyO2XIffOqjR89K1ADyujv

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