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Spouse
Are You Gonna Kiss or Wave Goodbye?
Pigeon Records, 2004
Grade: B+
Based on the music of recent months, what with the 80’s synth thing going on in popular music, one can only assume that a full-blown 90’s revival can’t be far behind. If so, Spouse looks to be on the cutting-edge with Are You Gonna Kiss of Wave Goodbye?, a surprisingly catchy and well-crafted batch of pop rock tunes that recall the days of Dinosaur Jr., and late-era Replacements.

Twenty-somethings everywhere rejoice.

On their third release, Spouse spends a good amount of time rockin’ out like your all-time favorite bar band back in high school…and I mean that in the best possible way. The album opens with “American Run-through”, which admittedly might borrow more closely from late-80’s Replacements, but let’s not quibble. The track is a loose, ragged, pretension-free track that would make Paul Westerberg proud in any decade.

The title track slows things down a bit with a semi-ballad, but is endearingly “heart on your sleeve” and let’s lead singer Jose Ayerve use his scratchy yet charming vocals to full effect.

Things pick right up again though with “Army Song”, a jittery track with an insanely danceable chorus. The songs anti-war message is far from subtle:

Joey you can fight along, I won’t go to your combat zone.
You keep shooting who you can, watch yourself become a man.

But the thing is just too damned catchy for anyone to really focus on lyrics anyway.

Later tracks indulge the more experimental side of Spouse, veering away from straight on rock. “Dancing to the Nuclear Stomp” is darker and more brooding with some haunting backup vocals, and “Goodbye San Diego” mixes guitars and synth to make spacey kind of rock that’s unique but still groovy as hell.

The two best tracks on Are You Gonna Kiss are likely “Here Comes the Headache” and “Feather Boa”. The former illustrates Spouse’s ragged, free-wheeling side once again, and sounds a little like that early, livelier Wilco we knew before they carried the burden of being the world’s greatest rock band. The latter is a fuzzy, poppy number that's tailor made for college radio circa 1992 and 2005.

For many of those that lived it, there was much more to the last decade than grunge and teen pop. Spouse manages to build on those other amazing influences and craft a unique yet accessible sound that recalls, yet never copies. Here’s hoping for the 90’s revival real soon. I’ve got my Superchunk t-shirt all laid out.
Jeff Cambron
1-31-05