Slimfit – Make It Worse

March 28th, 2009

Slimfit hail from Lancaster, PA and pay no heed to the fact that alternative country isn’t quite as popular as it used to be. They openly refer to Uncle Tupelo when describing their sound and it is as good a place to start as any. The only caveat is that Slimfit lean more towards the sound of contemporary country than The Tupes.

The opener “Midnight Blues” starts things on a plaintive note with a simple acoustic guitar backed by some violin, viola, and cello. What could easily have been overwrought instead is genuinely moving. Think UT’s “Slate”. This is followed up by “Wrong is Wrong” which, if you’re thinking UT, is vaguely reminiscent of “We’ve Been Had” with it muscular guitar and Joey McMonagle’s off-hand delivery.

“Which Way You Gonna Go?” mines Neil Young’s vein of country-inflected rock. In fact, I swore they were doing “Homegrown” at first. On the other hand, “Pony Up” shows that Slimfit enjoy more than country and hints at a fondness for The Replacements. In yet another stylistic shift, the title song is bluegrass, the pedal steel excepted.

Although Make It Worse is a good album, it occasionally sounds too much like Nashville for my ears. It’s not that anything sounds pretentious or pre-packaged – it’s more that there’s a bit too much polish around the edges when a bit more grit would have been appropriate.

Related posts:

1. Show #91: Coffee Creek
2. Show #54: Neko Case
3. Friday Night With Jim White and The Handsome Family
4. Show #96: Coffee Creek (The Final Show)
5. Arthur Alexander – Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter