Friction, Baby

08/13/1996 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Chuck Eddy

Every time Better Than Ezra1s 3Good² came on the radio last year, I got excited because I thought it was gonna be 3When I Come Around² by Green Day, but then my hopes were violently dashed by the singer1s donkey sounds. Which didn1t stop me from suggesting to the group1s Buzz Zeemer that they name their debut CD Better Than Better Than Ezra. And when I saw B.T.E. (Bachman-Turner Ezradrive!) live last fall, they sang Alanis Morissette1s 3You Oughta Know² with unchanged genders: 3Did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity?²

Now they1ve got a new album, and I1m looking for signs of life (as they said in 3Good²) but...well, somebody is home, I suppose. Though not as much humor as I1d hoped. The loudest track, 3Long Lost,² has more hee-hawing, and 3Return Of The Post Moderns² has post-Cobain nonsense poetry and 3All Apologies² strumming that suggest its title might be sarcastic. There1s also a song about about making a mix tape with falsetto-sung notes (in the song, not necessarily the tape), and something called 3Speeding Up Yo Slow Down² that does. As do their other tunes: Pure pop melodies for girls with prog-fancy powerchord (a la early Def Leppard, almost) breaks for boys, with said breaks way catchier than said pop. My favorite cut on the CD is its semi-surfy instrumental-jam coda.

In the bubblegrunge artistic hierarchy, Better Than Ezra are probably better than Live or Bush or Dog1s Eye View, but not better than Sponge or Ruth Ruth or Collective Soul. The fact that I can tell the difference might mean I need serious help.