John Butler Trio: Sunrise Over Sea : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

You've seen this guy before -- the dreads, the beat-up guitar, spare-changing somewhere downtown with a mutt lying dolefully next to his open guitar case. You don't doubt that his dog can catch a Frisbee, but you wonder if Rover gets enough to eat. You also find yourself thinking, "Man, if that dude ever gets his shit together. . . ." Well, that's John Butler. The John Butler Trio are big stars in Australia, Down Under's answer to Dave Matthews Band. Sunrise Over Sea, the JBT's American major-label debut, features fourteen of the band's epic stoner skiffles. The songs are not tremendously varied -- whole-wheat strumming, world-beat drums -- and you practically hear Butler grinning at the bass player. The lyrics generally have Butler declaring some truth about his or his lover's soul or making an Eddie Vedderish confession of vulnerability -- "I am just as cold and numb as you," he sings on the album's best track, "What You Want," which rests on a tense swirl of strings. Butler's gripping lead guitar gives the music complexity and muscle; if the songs don't have much in the way of structure, he nonetheless knows how to drive his band to dramatic crescendos. Rover will be eating well.