The Ex-Husbands’ sophomore effort finds them sounding a bit stale. Which is not to say that their 1996 debut was particularly original or groundbreaking, but it got by on plenty of vim and vigor — just the sort of attitude you’d expect from a country band from New York City. And there were some pretty good songs, too.
All Gussied Up, on the other hand, feels like mostly attitude — perhaps an ironic development, since the band relocated to the songwriting center of Nashville a couple years ago. Numbers such as “Another Honky Tonk Song”, “Another Beer Joint”, “Gear Jammin’ Daddy” and “I’m Just A Honky” are as cliched as you’d guess from their titles. Even the better songs seem bogged down in uninspired, heard-it-all-before playing.
Still, Anders Thomsen has a fine baritone voice and is capable of some pretty nifty turns of phrase. On “Up The Road”, he refers to the Midwest as “where the corn and the Chevrolets grow,” and “Flat Broke In Hoboken” tells an entertaining little tale. Chalk All Gussied Up as a holding pattern.