GUSTER - Gangin’ Up On The Sun

Virtually unknown in the Old Continent, but hugely popular back home, the American band Guster deliver with “Gangin' Up On The Sun” a delightful blend of pop-rock, vintage harmonies and warm guitar textures. For many, their most mature record; for us, certainly a thoroughly enjoyable work with no particular need to overthink it, perfect listening for moments of relaxation, when letting your guard down is the order of the day.

So, after the twilit, restless “Lightning Rod”, we welcome the radiant folk-rock of “Satellite” like a ray of sunshine, nodding our heads, dazed by the thoroughly summery charm of harmonies as diamond-clear, uninhibited and refreshing as a glass of water. And what fun, the show-off piano of “Manifest Destiny”, which, as Ryan Miller (vocals and guitar) rightly puts it, is a genuine exorcism against frustration (see also the indie-rock number “The New Underground”).

It's undeniable, in fact, that when you listen to this music, when you come face to face with tracks like “One Man Wrecking Machine”, you always get the sense that the feeling of fading youth is pretty decent fuel for our beloved popular music. An air of melancholy, roguish nostalgia, a sense of decay, and at the same time wonder and emotional effervescence for the things you can do here and now, despite those irretrievably lost.

On “The Captain” it's the infectious verve of country-western (complete with a cheeky banjo) that dominates the scene, while “Ruby Falls” (their longest track ever, clocking in at just over seven minutes) is the classic, heartfelt ballad swept up in blazing palpitations, with an excellent atmospheric coda in which a lone trumpet has its say on lost memories... There's a whiff of Traffic, on the other hand, in the radio hit “C'mon”, a thorough deja vu of gleaming, revitalized sixties sounds: a small marvel for day trips out on the water, far from everyone and everything. Room, in short, for a simplicity that immediately wins you over. Although, shortly after, you get a jolt, because you really didn't expect “Empire State” to be so wickedly touching, with its game of subtraction, with its elusive, penetrating “aerial” lyricism. Like an inner landscape unveiled inch by inch, which seems to find its redemption just a moment later, with “Dear Valentine”, a steady folk-rock number complete with dramatic horns.

Sure, these guys aren't inventing anything and they're treading on thoroughly safe ground. But we're happy, without reservation, to recommend this record to pretty much everyone, confident it will go down well.

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17/06/2007