{"id":30108,"date":"2013-03-26T15:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-old-man-markley-down-side-up\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:14:52","slug":"album-review-old-man-markley-down-side-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-old-man-markley-down-side-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Old Man Markley – Down Side Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"A band like Old Man Markley<\/strong> might seem an unusual addition to the Fat Wreck roster, certainly the label itself has attempted to push the unusual nature of the band\u2019s sound. Despite this angle, however, this isn\u2019t as rare and unique a sound as I\u2019d been lead to believe. It would be refreshing if it wasn\u2019t quite so laden with clich\u00e9s and didn\u2019t sound quite so close to some years old Chuck Ragan tracks. There\u2019s doubtless a passion about Old Man Markley<\/strong> that serves them well, indeed I find it difficult to be critical of a record played with such intensity. But, nonetheless, I can\u2019t shake the feeling that I\u2019ve heard this one before.<\/p>\n

\u2018Down Side Up\u2019<\/em> arrives at a thousand miles an hour and with more twang than anything you\u2019ve ever heard with \u2018Blood on My Hands\u2019<\/em>. It\u2019s catchy and well constructed but it sets an unfortunate tone for the album \u2013 it\u2019s all too familiar. Even inside the genre bluegrass-country-punk, or wherever one might attempt to pigeonhole this album, this has been done to death and the album never changes. It\u2019s just fast country music with poor lyrics and it\u2019s difficult to make anything of it by the time the violins have tapered out and the song is gone.<\/p>\n

The third track, \u2018America\u2019s Dreaming\u2019<\/em>, is perhaps the quintessential done-to-death song to end all songs. \u201cIf crooks are in charge, should we let them pick our pockets?\u201d<\/em> it begins: A somber country song about corporate propaganda and wars of greed. I\u2019m amazed by just how jaded I find myself listening to this song, but it is just so flatly executed. It sounds nice, it sounds inoffensive; lots of sweet backing vocals, swells, and even more twang, but there are just too many clich\u00e9s, both lyrical and musical for me to stand it without a little bit of annoyance. It\u2019s not to say that people shouldn\u2019t speak up on these issues, it\u2019s more to say that if people keep raising them by saying nothing at all, no one is going to pay any attention.<\/p>\n

Fifth track \u2018Blindfold\u2019<\/em> sounds like Weird Al Yankovic covering Bad Religion without meaning to. There\u2019s a polka element, a bouncing rhythm, and solos on unusual instruments. Like much of \u2018Down Side Up\u2019<\/em> it\u2019s not possible to pass it off as a bad song. \u2018Blindfold\u2019<\/em> is a good song, but it\u2019s just that \u2013 good. This isn\u2019t a great song, or even a particularly memorable song. It just calls to mind the artists who have already done the same and done it better.<\/p>\n

\u2018Too Soon For Goodnight\u2019,<\/em> closes out the album with a more somber tone and yet still manages to sound almost exactly the same as every other track on offer. At this point Old Man Markley<\/strong> are beginning to sound like the wedding band from an upcoming \u2018Hangover\u2019-esque film. It\u2019s silly vocally and simply standard musically.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a bad album, some people might love it and that would be understandable too. But to me this album just feels like a big slice of nothing. The playing is proficient, the themes are amicable, and the belief in doing what they love is right there for anyone to see. But it also feels like Old Man Markley<\/strong> were so desperate to do what they love that they wrote the first 13 songs in their collective brain and rushed out to record them \u2013 admittedly to an incredibly high standard \u2013 leading to an unfortunately forgettable record.<\/p>\n

3\/5<\/p>\n

‘Down Side Up’<\/em> by\u00a0Old Man Markley<\/strong> is available now on Fat Wreck Chords<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Old Man Markley links: Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Tom Knott (@nounandthenouns<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A band like Old Man Markley might seem an unusual addition to the Fat Wreck roster, certainly the label itself has attempted to push the unusual nature of the band\u2019s sound. Despite this angle, however, this isn\u2019t as rare and unique a sound as I\u2019d been lead to believe. It would be refreshing if it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,13047,607,150,13046],"class_list":["post-30108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-down-side-up","tag-fat-wreck-chords","tag-music","tag-old-man-markley"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Old Man Markley - Down Side Up - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A band like Old Man Markley might seem an unusual addition to the Fat Wreck roster, certainly the label itself has attempted to push the unusual nature of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Album Review: Old Man Markley - 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