Camper Van Beethoven: New Roman Times : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

As young punks and established rockers tackle George W. Bush head-on, it's fitting that one of the year's most engaging "political" records comes from a twenty-year-old indie band making a welcome comeback. New Roman Times, Camper Van Beethoven's first studio album in fifteen years, finds the Cali sextet charging through gypsy jams, psych-rock and scary-funny folk songs as it documents a parallel-reality America full of civil war, right-wing assholes, suicide bombers and burnouts getting loopy on narcotic flowers. The songs are hit-and-miss, but the band scores on cuts such as "Might Makes Right," where the dense instrumental grooves enhance the track's cautionary surrealism. Like the Mekons, who also filled their lefty songs with humor, warmth and ace fiddling, the Campers know that while nuance may not always be as useful as righteous anger in the real world, it often yields better music.