Eyes Adrift

With a line-up featuring former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, ex Meat Puppet Curt Kirkwood and one-time Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh, this one is bound to garner a lot more attention than it might otherwise have attracted.

The band was apparently formed after Novoselic saw one of Kirkwood’s solo performances in Seattle: Gaugh joined the pair a few days later and the trio headed for Austin, Texas where this record was put together. (Kirkwood and Novoselic actually go back much further however: the Meat Puppets guested with Nirvana on their 1994 ‘In Utero’ tour, and Nirvana covered no less than three Meat Puppets tracks during their MTV ‘Unplugged’ performance.

Despite the weight of history, the music clearly takes pride of place here with reputations set aside in the cause of quality. The stylistic net is cast far and wide too – opener ‘Sleight of Hand’ has echoes of Byrds psychedelia circa ‘Eight Miles High’, while the single ‘Alaska’, falls somewhere between Noveselic’s former outfit’s metal edge and REM’s jangle. Noveselic’s voice sounds not unlike that of seventies rocker Steve Miller, especially on tracks like ‘Telescope’, which boasts an opening riff borrowed from Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’.

If there is a thematic thread running through these songs it’s the southern influence, which shines brightly throughout. The slow-burning ‘Untried’ faintly recalls the opening bars of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ while ‘Blind Me’ is a terrific country-rock ballad with impressively tight harmonies and a memorable chorus. ‘Dottie Dawn and Julie Jewel’ goes even further into the genre with a railroad beat and twisted tale to boot, while ‘Pasted’, an ambitious, 15-minute Wild West fable, comes across like Jason & The Scorchers doing prog rock.

An engaging if low-key record with quality songwriting, insistent melodies and a wonderful attention to detail. In short the Eyes have it!