Starflyer 59 -- I Am the Portuguese Blues

6/10

I'd call I Am the Portuguese Blues Starflyer 59's big dumb rock record, but it's only 27 minutes long, and only one of the songs lasts longer than three minutes. Frontman, Jason Martin, must have scanned the airwaves, heard simplistic rock like Franz Ferdinand dominating, and thought, "Holy cow, I could do that in my sleep!" Or more likely, he thought, "I've got a ton of momentum right now, I just put out a good album last year. Why don't I put out another one this year? Do I have any unused songs lying around?" Indeed, Starflyer 59, though they had just shed brief, yet lauded member, Richard Swift, appeared to be at their peak, and Martin didn't seem to want the momentum to flag. He had been holding onto a batch of simplistic rock songs that had gone unused when the band veered from rock to pursue a more pop-oriented sound in the late 90's, and surely saw the success simplistic rock was having in 2003 and 2004. Down to a guitarist/vocalist, bassist, drummer three-piece, the band was in a perfect position to take advantage of that sound. With essentially all of the material already written (Martin cranked out a few more to round the track total here to ten), the band could rip right through recording this, have a new record on 2004's shelves, and get to whatever new ideas were bubbling in Martin's head for 2005.
With that said, coming immediately after two incredible, meticulously thought out albums, I Am the Portuguese Blues can't help but feel like a toss off. The ten songs come and go before they've had a chance to make any impact, though these simplistic, power chord-driven tunes would offer little depth no matter how long they lasted. The bummer of it is, when the band was more hard rock-oriented, the tones and arrangements were poured over, with Martin tracking guitar line over guitar line. Some of the simplistic leads here mirror the stuff from those albums, but lacking the mid-90's attention to detail that made them sound huge during the Clinton administration, these Bush-era licks just sound forgettable. Really, that's the major issue with the pastel-hue-covered Portuguese Blues. It's mostly fun and rollicking, but its generic vaguery makes it absolutely disposable.
Here's the opening track, "Wake Up Early," perhaps I Am the Portuguese Blues' most memorable. Every time I hear it, I think, Maybe I haven't given this album the chance it deserves. Then I hear the other nine tracks do nothing as memorable with even less ambition, and realize I've been right all along...fifteen years and running. AND WITH THAT SAID...if I wasn't such a big fan of this band, the 6/10 score would be the same, but the words here would probably be less harsh. This isn't a horrible album. It just pales in comparison to the rest of their work.


2004 Tooth & Nail Records
1. Wake Up Early 2:53
2. Unlucky 2:11
3. Teens in Love 2:53
4. The Big Idea 2:53
5. Worth of Labor 2:48
6. Not Funny 2:34
7. Sound on Sound 2:34
8. Destiny 2:24
9. No Revolution 3:33
10. I Need Some Help 2:44