The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.
Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.
50 fans can't be wrong, or can they?
American Songbook folk, Phil Ochs worship, New Deal murals, trophy wives in Palisades, John Cougar Mellencamp, Thomas Wolfe novels, a shiny alt-pop exterior--Useful Music's world is well-traveled. Consider the source: Josh Joplin's a wordy, emotive songsmith who spent the late 80s traveling the US in a camper van, and his background in folk and protest music makes what could've been a very bland set of mature, millennium adult alternative come from a very unique place instead. It doesn't hurt that Josh isn't much of a traditionalist. The production is glossy and up-to-date (for 1998), and there's a surprising range of genre exercises on display here--not all of which land, but most very much do.
On that note, everything from groovily pensive soliloquies ("Here I Am", "Undone") to piano ballads ("Phil Ochs") to cloyingly sentimental nostalgia ("Dutch Wonderland") to meat and potatoes full band pop rock ("Camera One", "Trailways") is attempted here, and Josh's knack for a dramatic, personal chorus and touches of visual storytelling make Useful Music pretty damn easy to get invested in. The omnipresent hip-hop drum loops and vague new age-y touches on a few tracks are amusingly of their time, but that just makes it more fun to listen to. I would caution you about his pretentious streak, however--it's hard to take the swipe at Sugar Ray seriously when "Superstar" plays like an unbelievably awkward "Semi-Charmed Life" rewrite, though I admire his tenacity nonetheless.
(Useful Music was originally issued in 1998 under the name Josh Joplin Band. In 2001, it was reissued under the Josh Joplin Group moniker with some re-records, "Camera One" replacing "Far Away", and an unnecessary, schmaltzy second version of "I've Changed" added to the end. My copy is the later reissue, and I think the changes were the right move--the re-records are just plain better sounding, and "Camera One" provides some much-needed levity to the front half of the album.)| Essential: | Quintessential: | Non-Essential: | Rating: |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Matter", "I've Changed", "Human" | "Here I Am" | "Superstar" |  |
INDEX | CHANGELOG | CONTACT
ART | MODDING | MUSIC | WRITING
GAME REVIEWS | MUSIC REVIEWS
NOFI | LOFI
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