O.A.R.: In Between Now And Then : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A jarring crash, a slinky bass line and some groovy reggae beats open O.A.R.'s fifth album, the jam band's major-label debut. In the first five minutes of "Now/Dareh Meyod," it gets everything right -- singer Marc Roberge lends a gruff edge to the pleading love ballad, while a not unwelcome saxophone wails behind him in short, eerie blasts. It could be the Police, reconceived and buffed up for 2003. Shame about the rest of the album, a mix of acoustic guitars, lite funk and overly earnest pop that would have fit snugly between Hootie and the Spin Doctors on the radio back in the early Nineties. The band's improvisational tendencies and anything-goes attitude may have given it a large live following, but that doesn't excuse its laziness in developing hooks (there are few here) or insightful lyrics (there are none). On "Anyway," Roberge claims that great music "gets me off when I'm feeling down." Words to live by.

KIRK MILLER
(RS 925, June 26, 2003)