Old 97's Album: “Drag It Up [Digipak]”

Old 97s' edginess is missing on their latest album. Their mixture of punk and alt-country is heard on only half of the songs on this album. The rest, while not bad, seems like continuation of the tone and themes of Rhett Millers solo album, The Instigator. Drag It Up is a worthy follow-up to Satellite Rides, it's just nothing amazing or ground-breaking. If you're a longtime fan, you will of course want this. If this would be your first Old 97's purchase, I'd recommend instead Too Far To Care or Satellite Rides.

This is a great album. On Fight Songs and Satellite Rides, the band seemed to be attempting to weight themselves more towards their poppy leanings, but this album is just more genuine. The songs range from extremely energized (won't be home, new kid) to whispery meandering (valium waltz, blinding sheets of rain) and everywhere in between.

For those of us who started our addiction with Hitchike to Rhome, all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you, Old 97's, for giving us patient lifers a very fine gift.

I discovered the Old 97s by getting into other Bloodshot artists awhile back, and I kinda traced the line to the 97s. This album, though, made me wish I found them earlier. Different from their earlier work, but gripping. Unlike many albums where a song that is catchy the first time gets old fast, the pieces on Drag it Up can be a fixture in your CD player and stand up to repeated listenings. Great lyrics, great melodies, and a very good flow to the album overall. Fantastic.

This is one you have to just buy and decide for yourself. If you've liked the Old 97's for anything they've done in the past, or even think you do, just get it 'cause these tunes are rocking, sad, dancing, funny, pensive, angry, fast and slow. Don't expect an album like any one of the others they've done, but a full spectrum of all of them, with a leaning towards the twang of the early years, thrown in with pop dashes of Satellite Rides. This isn't polished, its not supposed to be. In fact, if they had made this album right after Wreck Your Life, no one would be complaining. Its a diverse group of songs, but it certainly is cohesive and held together by familiar 97s licks and themes; for those that wanted more "brit-pop" growth, just go get Fastball or Franz Ferdinand; or maybe you should get this album or even the next Old 97's album, because I think fans of that type of music would still be thrilled with this stuff. But really for now, this one's for the fans of the Old 97's and the fans of great original music. PS Friends Forever, Adelaide, and Bloomington are underrated tunes, watch for them to rise above Smokers and The New Kid as the songs the 97s will be promoting off this album in a few years.

Rhett and the Boys were facing big expectations after 2000's near-perfect Satellite Rides. Sadly, they don't meet those expectations here. As much as I love their power-poppy previous release, I am just as big a fan of their shotgun-whiskey, country-fried earlier albums like Hitchhike to Rhome, Wreck Your Life & Too Far to Care. When I heard the new album was going to harken back to their roots, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, Drag it Up simply lacks the energy and good tunes of those classics. It feels like they wrote 2 or 3 really good new tunes and then filled out the album with some tossed-off sounding B-sides. The album never feels cohesive. Also, there are too many slow-paced songs for my liking (Moonlight, Borrowed Bride, Blinding Sheets of Rain, Valium Waltz, Bloomington & Adelaide all have similar, downtempo feels). That being said, the first and last songs on this disc are among the best things they've ever done. Won't Be Home is just spectacular, the kind of uptempo rocker with a soaring chorus that makes you want to drive real fast with no headlights down lonely country roads. The last tune, No Mother, has drawn flack from some, but for me, it's an incredibly moving song, the kind of saccharine tear-jerker that's almost impossible to get right, but Old 97's nail it. See them in concert if you can. I saw them back in January, and they played three or four songs from what would be Drag it Up. That's part of the reason I was so excited, the versions they played that night had a passion and kineticism that's missing from the studio versions here. I still love these guys, and here's hoping we don't have to wait four years for their next album.

P.S.- To the individual who wrote the laughably ignorant Amazon review: Rhett Miller is a wonderful, under-rated songwriter thank-you-very-much. Furthermore, Old 97's has been garnering overwhelmingly positive critical reception for 10 years now.