Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces

Buffalo Tom have been making music for almost twenty years. God, I feel old.

I remember my best friend giving me a tape (cassette tape. look it up on wikipedia kids) of 'Let Me Come Over', Buffalo Tom's third album, released in 1992. I still have the tape for sentimental reasons. I instantly loved the album. 'Let Me Come Over' mastered the quiet/loud/quiet alternative rock sound of the time and featured some killer rockers and some gorgeous ballads. Its a great album to play now if you want to hear how alternative/indie rock sounded in the early 90s. It contained 'Taillights Fade' an anthem of such majesty that I find it hard to believe, even now, that it wasn't a huge hit. Embarrassingly, 18 year old me liked to think the lyrics were about me and Winona Ryder..

"Read a thing about this girl
She was a hermit in her world
Story was much like mine
She could be my valentine
and although we've never met
I won't forget her yet"

Gaaaah! Who didn't have a crush on Winona Ryder in 1992 though?

Anyway, Buffalo Tom were always the bridesmaid and never the bride. Dubbed Dinosaur Jr Jr early in their career they released two superb alt.rock albums ('Let Me Come Over' and 1993's 'Big Red Letter Day') at a time when all anybody wanted to hear was grunge. Then, when they returned in 1995 with 'Sleepy Eyed' a really poppy, catchy collection of upbeat rock songs it was the summer of Britpop and The Tom did not live in a house, a very big house in the country so the album received none of the plaudits it warranted.

After one more album, the subdued 'Smitten' in 1998, nothing more has been heard from them; I assumed they had split up. Vocalist and guitarist Bill Janovitz released a couple of countrified solo albums and bassist and also vocalist (as documeted in the sleeve notes of their Best Of album, he always sings the sensitive ballads) Chris Colbourn worked on various 'projects' and I have no idea what drummer Tom Marginnis was up to. Anyway, now, unbelievably, they are BACK! With a new album and a tour!!

I have lived with this album for a couple of months now because I wanted to get a real feeling for it before writing my thoughts down. I approached the album with some trepedation because, honestly, Buffalo Tom have such a great back catalogue it was hard to know how they could make a new album that could make me want to see them live and hear anything other than all the old stuff.

Well they have. Its like they've never been away. As ever, the album is a mix of rockers and ballads. Chris Colbourn sings more than he used to, its almost 50/50 between him and Bill. The first two tracks are great, catchy rockers that could have been on Sleepy Eyed (great opening line for the album by the way- "I'm gonna draw you in like a bad phone call/ I'm gonna draw you right in" . Buffalo Tom fans- you can just hear Bill singing that line in that gruff, yearning voice of his can't you? Well its as good as it sounds.

Track 3 'You'll Never Catch Him' is a lovely Colbourn ballad but then track 4 really ups the ante. 'Bottom of the Rain' is a very, very fine song indeed. A straight-ahead rocker with some wonderful guitar, it contains a chorus that you will be singing all day long and could be an anthem for the now grown up indie kids of the early 90s...

"Where'd they go?
Where are all those golden years"

Luckily, the album is able to maintain these high standards. There are only a couple of forgettable tracks ('Good Girl' and 'Gravity') and there are some wonderful highs including piano ballad 'Pendleton' and the epic final track 'Thrown' which sounds like it means an awful lot to Bill Janovitz.

I am not sure how many new fans this album will attract ("not Buffalo Tom again", said my girlfriend last night, as I headed towards the stereo), I have a suspicion that you may have "had to have been there" to appreciate how great the Tom were in the early 90s and I am pretty sure that their London gig in December will contain more thirty-somethings than a This Life convention.

Still, if you're a fan you will love this and if you've never heard of the band and are curious, give the new album or 'Let Me Come Over' a try. Pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

9.0