With their third album Better Day the Continental Drifters uphold their reputation as one of the most powerful and versatile bands of the past decade. On the heels of a year of emotional upheaval, this sextet has crafted a powerful statement of hope and faith that swings, sways and rocks.
The core of the Drifters is a singing and songwriting triumvirate of rock veterans: Vickie Peterson, Susan Cowsill and Peter Holsapple. Peterson and Cowsill are survivors of mega-groups The Bangles and The Cowsills, and keyboardist Holsapple was a founder of the influential indie-rock band The dBs. All three are in demand as session musicians for a wide variety of rock and alt-country acts, and the two women have their own side project, The Psycho Sisters.
The group’s rock-solid foundation comprises guitarist Robert Maché, bassist Mark Walton and drummer Russ Broussard, all of whom are journeymen songwriters in their own right. The Drifters live, work and play with a collectivist mentality in which there are no stars, just a talented ensemble that supports the individual voices of its members. That ethic was put to the test in the past year when Cowsill and Holsapple announced the end of their marriage.
While not addressing the subject directly, Better Day reverberates with the echoes of that situation. It is at times an almost painfully intimate recording, and although the group’s trademark harmonies still soar in nearly every song, many of the songs themselves seem to detail the individual songwriter’s attempts to work through some difficult emotions alone.
Although the subtext of Better Day is somber, the music still rocks in the right places. It kicks off in high gear with Peterson’s guitar riff-driven “Na Na,” a verbal raspberry in the face of a former lover. This track contains just about the only guitar solo on the record, a typically understated Maché lead that leans toward Neil Young’s minimalist stylings. Holsapple’s “Live on Love” is a tossed soul salad, with funky bass lines, horn riffs, church-organ chords and the anachronistic sound of Dixieland-style strummed banjo. His “Too Little, Too Late” echoes Philly soul with burbling electric piano and a trumpet-and-guitar backing riff over Holsapple-Cowsill harmonies.
Peterson and Holsapple throw in a little humor to lighten the proceedings with “(Down by the) Great Mistake,” a lovers’ spat song that crosses Johnny Cash and June Carter’s version of “Jackson” with everything ever done by Sonny & Cher, and even quotes from Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Cowsill’s “Someday” is all California guitar rock, mixing Byrds jangle with Fleetwood Mac rhythm and riffs.
On the quieter side, Peterson’s “That Much a Fool” is an old-time country waltz about propinquitous love, laid on a foundation of tremolo mandolin and wheezing accordion. Cowsill dons her singer-songwriter folky persona for “Snow” and “Cousin.” Both are about the loss of innocence and the discovery of adult strengths that allow one to go on in the face of heartbreak. “Cousin” is a ponderous gothic rocker that evokes first love — “You don’t have to stay/I just want one more chance to feel that way” — and the Summer of Love. “Snow” is densely packed with poetic lyrics about the end of innocence and confusion of adulthood: “Did I look like I knew what I was doing?” she sings.
Walton and Broussard each take a turn at songwriting, Walton on “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be,” a mid-tempo rocker, and Broussard with Cowsill on the folky “Peaceful Waking.” Perhaps the biggest punch comes from the final track, Holsapple’s “Where Does the Time Go?” Starting off with sketchy piano arpeggios, like a singer doodling on the keyboard in the middle of the night, it swells into a swinging, bluesy wail of mid-life angst.
As with 1999’s critically acclaimed Vermilion the music on Better Day gains clarity and impact with each listen. While it lacks the emotional uplift of its predecessor, Better Day may be even more unified thematically, although I’d hesitate to saddle it with the overused title of concept album. Rather, Better Day finds this extraordinary band soldiering on in the face of emotional turmoil, producing a complex work that rarely settles for easy answers. The musicians always play with consummate skill, passion and conviction, and the production is exemplary. It’s a worthy addition to the Drifters’ small but influential oeuvre, and I hope a sign of even better things to come.
(Razor & Tie, 2001)
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