Random titles, well-constructed thoughts

Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam is not just three random words put together, but rather the name of a rock group that finds a good balance of light-hearted music and emotionally heavy messages. This is their fourth album, and Blackout Cowboy clocks in at only eight tracks, but it doesn’t particularly feel empty or incomplete, so take that as good songwriting. All eight tunes are similar in their extravagance, memorability and sound, which means standouts aren’t hugely stand-out; thinking of them as people, none of them are class clowns or attention hogs but students who do what they’re told and have an average amount of friends.

The band is thinking about their lives now compared to their past and future. “My childhood fear of rejection” is a notable line from the “Running From My Ghost,” and track number four is entitled “Adult Memory Ow.” The opener sounds cheery and would easily misdirect lazy listeners into thinking it’s a happy/carefree tune, instead of a quick contemplation of living life on the edge and still trucking along. Edge-living is carried through to the next tune, “All The Way Over the Edge,” another upbeat ode to taking risks that make the “edge” not seem so bad, which is likely the band’s goal. It starts out a little frantic but becomes rather calm when the vocals join in.

Another simple tune joins the ranks with “Meatloaf to the Camera,” a strange title that would suggest a strange song but subverts that for a relatively straight-ahead rock number. Here the band discusses the difficulties of navigating friendships sprinkled with sexual tension, articulated through the McCartney-sounding line “Everything’s fine until we, Kiss!” (reminiscent of “Jet”). Repeating “I gave you” lets their frustration come through with minimal barrier of understanding–these relationships are not easy.

The previously mentioned “Adult Memory Ow” is what it must be like to be hit with a young memory as an adult, and the particular phrasing of the title sounds like a drunk person saying it after he/she ran into an old classmate. “Blackout Cowboy” and “Mrs. JR Hartley” don’t find themselves giving listeners that much to comment on but are still enjoyable and fit the overall vibe of the album.

“MK Ultra” and “Mind Control” are an excellent pairing (unsurprisingly dealing with the same subject matter), the latter playing of the former and transitioning together really well. “Mind Control” ends with a quote of “Running from my ghost” that ties the album together very nicely. Blackout Cowboy is definitely a case of short but sweet.