The Rocking Horse Winner
“Horizon”
(Equal Vision Records)
First of all, let’s get this straight-there is little to no rocking on this CD. TRHW sounds a bit like Stereolab and a bit like Weezer. They are a female fronted indie-rock group that would probably be popular with those who are fans of Letters to Cleo and Save Ferris (whoever the hell they might be). “Horizon” is full of jazzy little numbers that combine mid-tempo riffs with poetic and introspective lyrics. Think of them as The Promise Ring fronted by Gwen Stefani. Yeah, it curls my toes, too. Anyway, TRHW serves up ten li’l tracks of about three or four minutes in length that your girlfriend will surely dig and you’ll be absolutely bumming that you ever introduced her to the band in the first place. Now before someone out there starts throwing out the misogynist label at me and complaining that I just don’t understand women-well, hell, I don’t think I do understand women-there’s just not enough meat on “Horizon” to really satisfy someone concerned with originality and creativity. Maybe lose a couple of the soft, sunset feeling tracks and insert a good old honky-tonk number or two, like Janis Joplin would have done. Now that girl knew how to do it right.
