Buffalo Tom – Jump Rope
This is the veteran Boston alt-rock band’s first album since 2018. It was worth the wait because many of the finely composed little tunes are memorable & ambitious. The vocals especially on the ballad “Our Poverty” & “Compromised” are convincingly Buffalo Tom.
There are 14 workouts to Jump Rope (Drops May 31/Scrawny Records/Music On CD/Artone/51:00) produced by Buffalo Tom & recorded with David Minehan (add’l bgv) at Woolly Mammoth Studios in Massachusetts.
I came late to the band when I purchased their 1993 effort Big Red-Letter Day. But I enjoyed that so much I went looking for vocalist Bill Janovitz’s (guitars/keys) solo LP Lonesome Billy as well. Am I a fan? I don’t have everything they’ve made, but I’m an admirer. I like the work they do & how they do it.
With “New Girl Singing,” I sense the chiming wondrous melodies I used to enjoy with the solo work of the late Bobby Sutliff (“Same Way Tomorrow”), a former member of The Windbreakers. That evidence becomes clear in “Why’d You Have To Be Like That” which is quite good in that Sutliff tradition.
As a group, Buffalo Tom presides over many similarly haunting melodic paths of easy-listening pop charm with a serious commercial sensibility with an alternative spin. They have their Byrds-like moments. But the vocalizing is cultivated in a pure late 70s-mid-80s perspective – as in Sutliff, Russ Tolman, Steve Wynn & John Wesley Harding (Wesley Stace). I find it intriguing & gratifying. Always have. They don’t hit the target every time but who does?
Even the slower tunes possess an artfully understated grace as displayed in “Come Closer,” with its laid-back piano cruising gently through steady percussion & aural vocals. An expression without the progressive rock bombastic trimmings. Impressive qualities this late in the game & Buffalo Tom still has something viable to say without depending on reflective qualities & nostalgia.
There’s a steady validity to this band’s performance & this album has proponents that would hook an ear, any ear. Some artists go for the feet with their music & some for the head. Buffalo Tom can be found somewhere in the currents that run from the head to the heart. Nothing sounds dated & the showcase is wound tight as a drum head.
“Rifled Through” has a Rockpile drive & Dave Edmund’s rawness without compromising the zest & vibrance of each tune in the Buffalo Tom ritual. There’s lots to enjoy & I’m not surprised.
Highlights – “New Girl Singing,” “Autumn Letter,” “Recipes,” “Come Closer,” “Our Poverty,” “Compromised,” “Why’d You Have To Be Like That,” “Rifled Through” & “You’re On.”
Musicians – Chris Colbourn (bass/guitars/vocals) & Tom Maginnis (drums/percussion/vocals).
Color image courtesy of Kelly Davidson. CD @ Amazon & https://www.buffalotom.com/ + https://buffalotom.bandcamp.com/track/helmet-2
