some guy named robb

This review will take you on a whine about loss as much as a listen to the irresponsible years by some guy named robb, a duo composed of Robb McCormick and Ben Smith. Try as I might, I just couldn’t shake that this was such a fine opportunity lost. The music is good and true and the duo produces some great harmonies, but it misses on the other two points that make music complete – the lyrics and the presentation. Robb describes their music as “modern-acoustic rock” or “over-caffeinated folk music” (seems even McCormick can’t make up his mind what it really is).

This is a collection of 14 tracks with bizarre lyrics that is definitely not OKOM (Our Kind of Music). If they could make up their minds about what kind of music it is, maybe the presentation would firm up. You must have a plan, a vision, or a message that you need to share or the music meanders as much as the listener’s attention. If there is an underlying theme here, it is loss – of innocence, hope, friendship, puppy love, faith; … you name it. That’s just too dark a message for fourteen endless tracks. This album was purported to capture the essence of the lively interchange and humor of the duo’s live performances usually in coffee houses, small bars, and college gatherings. Not having the advantage of that experience, this album does not entice me to seek it out. The jokes are juvenile, many interchanges nonsensical , and the humor is self-deprecating. The sum of which is a really discordant experience. If this 26 year old author is so obsessed with loss now, I really don’t want to hear what he comes up with by the time he turns 30. I don’t think I could find enough beer into which to cry.

On a brighter side, there is nothing wrong with the music itself – acoustic guitar and piano/keyboard (Robb McCormick) and percussion (Ben Smith) are very good. And the harmonies produced by songwriter Robb McCormick and Ben Smith are really quite well done, if you just didn’t have to listen to the lyrics. It bothers me that McCormick wants to denigrate himself by the moniker of some guy named robb as if he were ashamed to put his real self in the musical effort. He carries that forward by referring to the other half of this duo (Ben Smith) as Ibenski Smithers. What’s wrong with a little honesty and true grit in your music, robb? Either McCormick is unsure of himself and/or his music or feels himself so far above his audience that nothing real comes through in either the lyrics or presentation. Seems to be all smoke and mirrors. Either way, everyone loses.

Taking each track as an experience by itself: track one, "one more for the passengers", is a nice ballad with some subtle harmony. The only mood breaker was some sort of maniacal laugh about the middle of the track. The third track, "romance is dead", mixes broken hearts, hostility, and religious faith, and is marred with some forceful humming that drowns out what could be some good harmony in the background. "express lane love", a cutesy puppy crush ditty is overwhelmed by the “grocery-store” PA announcements littered throughout. One of the hidden tracks is a redo of one more for the passengers with canned haunted house effects that don’t add a thing to the music.

The best thing for Robb McCormick to do is keep looking for his “message”. The music talent is there, but the maturity to know what to do with it is still lacking. Come back when you find yourself, some guy named robb.

Written by Cheryl Arthur 4/22/02

E-mail me about this review
Read about TxLogCabin

Email Robb McCormick: someguynamed_robb@yahoo.com
Website: someguynamedrobb.com
CDs are available through the SGNR website, Hastings, Higher Grounds, Electric Moo, and other music stores in Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Arkansas

Written by Cheryl Arthur, April, 2002

E-mail me about this review

Read about TxLogCabin

Hit Counter

Home