Review: The Makers

The Makers
““Rock Star God””
(SubPop)

The Kinks trying to be the Rolling Stones and failing.  But dressing the part all the way.  “Star Power” spices with straight pianos and girlie voices going “oooh-oooh”.  There’s an underlying greasy glammy tint (which isn’t worn with the hip sass that’s intended).  This is the kind of rock that goes “oh yeah” and “Uh-huh, uh-huh” a lot.  “A Better Way Down” is an exercise in un-imaginative and unoriginal rhymes, laid on top of even less notable bar chords (and an attempt at humor about not setting yourself on fire).  It raised the question if four songs of this was enough.  The Bowie tinged “God’s Playing Favorites” has some drama with the heavy addition of a string section and some Doors sounding classic keys.  But what’s amazing is that lyrics like  “Open you eyes, and take a good look at me, Open your eyes and don’tcha like what you see” got signed to SubPop Records.  Most of the progressions and core song ideas are ripped Stones tunes and other 60’s, 70’s rock pop.  Although that old school rock ethic has been seeing a lot of resurgence, I doubt the Makers are going to ride their sound very far even if it is the sound de jour.  There’s many smaller elements (strings, spoken samples, keyboard effects) that raise the value of this as a recording, but the core ideas and the lyrics find themselves stuck in the repetitive and used.  My neighbor happened to stop by when I was listening to this and I quote, ““I wouldn’t buy it”.”