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The Refreshments' success (three months on the charts and still counting) continues to perplex; their music's all simple, predictable one-two twangy chords with mindless lyrics, and nothing original or "refreshing" about any of it. Most songs sound like retreads; "Blue Collar Suicide" sounds like a Hootie & the Blowfish clone. The lead singer could break into the chorus "Let her cry . . . " and it would go unnoticed. In "Down Together" the band do a Southern version of Cracker. And singer Roger Clyne did not graduate from the Noel Gallagher school of romanticism. In "European Swallow" he sings, "Do anything for you, anything you want me to/It's just gonna take a little more money." With this Tempe (Arizona) quartet enjoying such success, maybe she won't have to wait too long. * The Refreshments
FIZZY FUZZY BIG & BUZZY
(Mercury)
-- Amy Steele
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