Hutch
“Turn it Around”
(Smile Records)
I don’t have a CD player in my car and I don’t own any tapes, so when I’m driving around I’ve usually got the radio on. Sometimes I’ll tune in a baseball game, but for the most part I usually stick with Classic Rock because I find Top 40 tunes offensive to both my intelligence (which isn’t saying much) and my eardrums. Hutch sounds like a classic rock band-maybe a little Buffalo Springfield with a bit of Crosby, Stills, & Nash (no Neil Young, sadly) thrown in for good measure. While this may lead you to believe that I listened to this CD seventeen times in a row and am considering a new Hutch tattoo (which really would be a nice compliment to my “Starsky” tat), you’d be tragically mistaken. There are too many forgettable little popish tunes that fail to deliver any sort of charge whatsoever-a half-hearted “I’m-so-lame-no-body-likes-me” ditty (‘Living with Me’), a not-so-keen take on alcoholism (‘The Beast Within’), which is all too similar to Johnny Cash’s take on the same subject. My favorite song is undoubtedly ‘Something About You’, a feel good, up-tempo track full of bluesy-promises and catchy lyrics. Considering “Turn it Around” is a self-produced debut effort, there’s a pretty good chance these guys will manage to put together a solid album worthy of your hard-earned cash fairly soon-just not now.
