Spin Doctors: Here Comes The Bride : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

If nothing else, the spin doctors deserve credit for tenacity. In the eight years since their megaplatinum studio debut, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, they've watched two follow-up LPs falter, been dropped by their first label and weathered a revolving door of lineup changes. Their latest album, Here Comes the Bride, finds the New York quartet with a new guitarist and little to lose. The Spin Doctors expand their midtempo palette with reggae and other funky backbeats, and enliven their trademark boogie blues with a touch of keyboards (thanks to Ivan Neville). Vocalist Chris Barron can still sound like an overwrought flower child, but his drawling delivery is tempered by more concise, less jam-oriented song structures on tracks such as the love plaint "Diamond." A little post-hippie trippiness remains, as well: "Waiting for the Blow" includes an Ink Spots sample and an answering-machine interlude, and a hidden track, "Let's Try Again," offers some shimmering backward drone. Bride may not spur a comeback, but it's a good effort from a band relegated to rock's Borscht Belt circuit. (RS 814)

NEVA CHONIN