BOC: Creativity and production

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On ons 8 jul 1998 11.35 +0000 "<Nick English>" <nick at THECAMPUS.COM> wrote:
> Not to diss Al, who I think is fantastic, both with BOC and without
> them, but to suggest that BOC can't play up to past standards anymore
> really shortchanges Buck, Eric and Allen.

     Buck is an undeniably "shit-hot" guitar player, Allen is no
slouch on guitar and damn good on keys.  I still like Eric as a
singer most of the time, and he can be a good front man--IMO he
was a bit restrained in his posturing (which is the fun part) at
the Astoria.
     Musically, BOC is week in the obvious place: drums.
The drumming on the album (and at the Astoria) was fine, and
there's no doubt it is technically quite competant.  But it
doesn't really _stand out_ the way Al's does.  Mind you, Al
is one of the finest drummers I've heard.  Not many drummers
really catch my attention, and Al did from the first time I
listened to BOC.  I can't help but think that some of the
subtler rhythmic shifts on _HF_ would have been really brought
to life.  But _HF_ isn't _bad_ IMO, and beats the pants overall
off of _RbN_ and _CN_ IMO.

     Meanwhile, I hope the relative silence from the tBS camp
means that something very cool, and very big is in the works.
Well, we know that Al and Co. have plenty left to dish out.
tBS have a bunch of albums that prove it.  We'll just have to
wait and see if BOC can manage as well.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/