Rodeo City

Album Review

From the title and cowboy-rodeo artwork of the sleeve, you'd very much expect some No Depression or cow punk hybrid. That's misleading, because actually it's decent indie pop/rock, without much country influence unless you want to count some of the harmonies. David Dewese and Jerry James, the duo who are Foxymorons, come up with pretty nice, if modest, melodies that pleasingly alternate major and minor chords. The material isn't far from Elvis Costello and Alex Chilton territory, though they're not terribly close in sound to either of those icons. The tunes are better than the singing, but, even so, the vocals are good-hearted and easy on the ear. Their compositions are witty in a slightly self-deprecating way, and the recording is straight-ahead mid-energy guitar pop/rock, intelligently blending electric and acoustic axes. Sometimes the tracks are under-produced and could have benefited from more care (the acoustic "Something Out There" sounds more like a warm-up than a finished effort), but with this sort of thing it's better to err on the side of minimalism than over-production. Power pop lovers who don't mind hearing stuff in the genre that's more relaxed and less self-conscious than the norm for that style might want to give it a listen.