Everclear: Slow Motion Daydream : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Everclear's Art Alexakis turned forty last April, but in truth he's been acting older than his years for a long time now. Beginning with 1994's Sparkle and Fade, he trained a critical eye on the sort of excesses rock & roll is supposed to be all about, apologizing for his wild-ass past just as often as he romanticized it. Along the way, he became the sanest voice in post-grunge angst rock, turning the laments of divorced dads and disaffected suburban kids into tuneful, well-constructed and heartfelt songs.

Slow Motion Daydream doesn't deviate too much from this tried-and-true blend of personal pain and power-chord pleasure, combining the alternately nostalgic and pissed-off family portraits of 2000's Songs From an American Movie, Vol. 1 with the guitarorama loudness that Everclear have been polishing since their more punkish days. "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom," Daydream's first single, typifies the no-frills character of the album's sound and the detail-oriented compassion of its lyrics: Between thunderous, dirt-simple riffs and an oft-repeated chorus, the titular soccer mom, who used to smoke pot and "got gangbanged in the bathroom at my high school prom," wonders, "Where do all the porn stars go when the lights go down?"

Mellow moments abound, with gentle strings and pseudofolky melodies seeping into the mix, but most songs bank on the winsome charisma of the chunky guitars and Alexakis' grief-tinged Northwestern drawl, both of which manage to sound simultaneously cathartic and hook-y. The mood veers from foreboding (the John Ashcroft-dissing "Blackjack") to teary-eyed ("TV Show") to gently sentimental ("New York Times"), but the pop-friendly directness of these twelve songs suggests in no uncertain terms that old man Alexakis really believes the words of hope he offers to an anonymous buddy on "Science Fiction": "You need to remember/Life is always getting better."

CHRISTIAN HOARD
(From RS 918, March 20, 2003)