Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse!
Just when you learned to make for the exit when the bar owner says there's no more beer for the band, TMP lets it rip—ELECTRIC. Plus, it's got covers of Loretta Lyn AND Foreigner!
Besides being the most predictably correct album title of all time, Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse!, reveals that, after four albums, TMP still had some tricks to play on us all.
Yes, just when you think you've got a lead on their fifth gear punk/bluegrass hybrid; just when you got used to their fondness for reinventing arena rock staples as Opry-worthy weepers, or staid bluegrass standards into punk-fired romps, and just when you learned to make for the exit when the bar owner says there's no more beer for the band, TMP lets it rip—ELECTRIC. Never before has the demon electricity reared its ugly head on one of their records, but Someday Soon plugs in for a few songs and adds another head to the TMP hydra.
Never ones to shy away from seemingly incongruous and head-scratching covers, TMP dares you to tell 'em they can't be done. Adding to their already significant catalog cache, they've added the Stanley Brothers ("I Got Wise"), Foreigner ("Hot Blooded"--that's right, m'fers, HOT BLOODED!), Loretta Lynn (the paeon to domestic bliss "Fist City"), the Monkees ("Circle Sky") and a little new wave action in the form of Human League ("Don't You Want Me Baby.") That takes some serious stones to tackle that spectrum. It's sure to have bluegrass purists shaking their canes at these upstarts.
But it's always been their original and super clever songwriting that keeps TMP above mere tomfoolery. "Burr Under My Saddle," the anti-Bush lament "Look on Your Face," the boozy "666 Pack" and the ELECTRO-FIED TMP classic "Hanged Man" leave no doubt about that.
Sure, they've plugged in for a few, but that's just so's you can hear 'em over the breaking glass over by the bar.
Choice Cuts:
Look On Your Face
Liquor Store
Fist City
Hanged Man
