I was hoping this album might be one where I could finally put my feelings about Three Dog Night on paper one way or the other. This band has been with me since my childhood, thanks to their cover of "Joy to the World" and its infamous (for me, anyways) refrain of "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!" I have long suspected that they were a mediocre group, but I am always reluctant to pronounce final judgment on a band unless I have heard at least one of their albums.
Well, now I've heard American Pastime and I can confidently say that it is pretty terrible. Consisting of all cover songs, this record finds Three Dog Night exploring a variety of styles, such as rock, funk, and disco, and sounding bad in all of them. The vocal performances are decent, but the hooks are lacking and the instrumentation weak. Bland mid-70s soft rock at its blandest, and I don't have a lot interesting to say about it.
But to be fair, my obligatory allmusic.com and rateyourmusic.com research has uncovered that this particular album is considered by even fans of the band to be one of their weakest, as it came late in their career, and after one of the three main members had already left the group. So I still can't pronounce a final judgment on Three Dog Night as a whole. But I can on this album, and my judgment is that it is going to the blue bin.
No comments:
Post a Comment