Review Summary: Do you want me to get naked and start the revolution?
Orange County is a 2002 film starring Colin Hanks and Jack Black. Recently graduated from high school and with the whole world just around the corner, Colin Hanks' character tries to shake of the shackles of his broken home and apathetic group of friends, which has been hindering his life as a fledgling writer. Not without a few errors, the film does a great job of capturing youthful ambition, spontaneity and an anxious teenager's inability -nay, refusal- to sit still and watch the world pass him by. Creeper Lagoon's “Under the Tracks,” the centerfold of this album – the one I'm reviewing right now – is on that movie's soundtrack.
Take Back The Universe And Give Back Yesterday operates on consistently sounding fresh, grabbing life by the balls. With “Chance of a Lifetime”, the album tiptoes its opening with a simple guitar riff and vocals before it expands into a sprawling, lively anthem. The production encompasses so many different sounds and textures thrown into songs, like puzzle pieces, making each song its own distinct beast and, in turn, giving the album so much variation, keeping the listener always on their toes. Contrast the aptly named, hard hitting track “Wrecking Ball” to the glossy, synth-laden “Naked Days”; the instrumental, stomp-like acoustic jam “She Loves Me Not” to the baritone, almost darkly Post-Punk vocals featured in “Lover's Leap”. Creeper Lagoon eschew any notion of minimalism in this album, employing all tools available to them to make as heterogeneous of an album as they can, while still maintaining a cohesive, poppy Alt Rock album.
What is most impressive about this album, however, is how despite all the areas this album explores, it is still so easily digestible. It does not take many listens to fully appreciate
Take Back The Universe And Give Back Yesterday. This shouldn't be scoffed at as an indulgence to our culture of immediate gratification, but rather a testament how to do indulge artfully. Just sit back and bask in one of the more purely enjoyable albums you'll listen to in a while.
