Return of the Rentals (Maverick)
by J. Lianna Ness
I have to confess. I wanted to turn this off 30 seconds into the first song, but just to be fair, I forced myself to listen to the whole thing. I had high hopes that it would improve, but halfway through this painful ordeal, I suddenly felt like I was at one of those “Best of the ’80s” nights that are all the rage in the clubs. I don’t know which was worse, the music (it oozes big gobs of cheesy keyboard sounds) or the lyrics (“If you’re friends of P. then you’re down with me!” Puh-leeze!). It sounds like the Smashing Pumpkins colliding with every bad ’80s pop band with a synthesizer (Human League, anyone?). This disc tries to be cutting edge, but the only cutting I wanted to do was to my wrists. Please help me! I’m drowning in a sea of Yamahas, Moogs, and Casio Tone Banks! To quote The Rentals themselves: “Is this it? Are we done? Must we carry on?” The ’80s are over. Change or stagnate. There’s this thing we call PROGRESS, but apparently nobody told The Rentals about it.