ALBUM REVIEW: ‘Tomorrow’ Finds The Rave-Ups Revived After 30-Year Break
Nick Cristiano
Posted On February 2, 2022
Back in 1990, The Rave-Ups ended their third album, Chance, with “Faint Sense of Success.” The title just about summed up the band’s career. After generating some initial buzz with 1985’s Town + Country and an appearance in the movie Pretty in Pink, the band was not able to gain much momentum despite building on Town + Country’s promise with their two subsequent releases, The Book of Your Regrets and Chance. Singer-guitarist Jimmer Podrasky and guitarist Terry Wilson obviously knew the end was near when they penned “Faint Sense.” The band broke up in 1991.
Now The Rave-Ups are back with a new album, Tomorrow, that reunites the four original members — Podrasky, Wilson, bassist Tommy Blatnik, and drummer Timothy Jiminez. (In the interim, Podrasky put out three strong solo albums and an EP of duets with Syd Straw.)
If the kind of Americana The Rave-Ups helped to pioneer is much more common today than it was in the ’80s, the foursome nevertheless ensures the music sounds as fresh as ever. Tomorrow seems to pick up where Chance left off, with a sparkling amalgam that combines the power of rock with the crisp and catchy melodies of pop, along with rootsy embellishments. (Sneaky Pete Kleinow played steel guitar on Town + Country; another renowned steel player, Marty Rifkin, guests on three tracks on Tomorrow.)
For all the uplift of the music, Podrasky and Wilson, who still do the bulk of the writing, are not ones to romanticize or sugarcoat. Numbers such as “So, You Wanna Know the Truth” and “Coming After Me” (“Welcome to the real world, buddy”) speak to the personal and political turmoil generated by the times without being overtly topical. Similarly, “Cry,” a plea for empathy, can be read as an indictment of a former president while maintaining a more universal resonance.
“Roll,” with its acoustic textures and Podrasky’s harmonica, spins a heartland tale of two ill-fated lovers, and “How Old Am I?” relates a wrenching encounter with an aging father. The bluesy “When I Write Your Name,” the album’s hardest-hitting number, is a bitter divorce story, while the brisk “Violets on a Hill” has a country flavor that fits its fatalistic view (“I hope you never make me cry / But I’m betting that you will”).
On the lighter side are the jaunty “Brigitte Bardot,” about an unrequited infatuation, and the appropriately sunny “The Dream of California.”
The 11-track set closes with the title song, which balances the dark reality of today with the promise that the future often holds. This album shows that a bright Tomorrow has already arrived for The Rave-Ups.
