Mercury
1993
Ricks Road
About This Album
Texas sound a bit like a countrified version of the Pretenders put through a car wash on Ricks Road, to the point where the music is so clean, one's mind just slips around and off of it. There's a squeaky-clean polish to "So Called Friend," a stab at southern twang that doesn't seem genuine...it's a sound best left in a studio and indicative of a band trying too hard to make a hit song. There are simply too many studio effects and fake sounding instruments throughout the album. One imagines the harmonica to be some sort of Casio creation. It's like listening to Cher doing a Dusty Springfield impersonation. "Fade Away" tries so hard to have an aggressive hook that it becomes quite awkward. "Listen to Me" is supposed to be uplifting, but it mostly stumbles around a light beat and strings that go nowhere. Still, it's one of the album's better moments, because it's somewhat restrained. It's not overbearing like most of the other songs. "So in Love With You" starts out quite promising, but devolves into an unbearable din when Sharleen Spiteri reaches for high notes that just won't materialize. "Tired of Being Alone" is quite good; first, because it's almost impossible to ruin an Al Green song, and second, because it's less glossy and more immediate sounding than the rest of the album.
Track List

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.