Description
Trouble with X is the sophomore album by the American ska/rockabilly band The W’s, released on 5 Minute Walk Records released in October 1999, distributed by ForeFront Records through Chordant Distribution Group. The album was produced by Masaki Liu of Dime Store Prophets fame with the band.
Not every group of recent fast food employees manages to put together a band, get signed, tour nationally and pick up a couple Dove Awards in the space of 18 months. But these young pups from Corvallis, Ore., who probably haven’t yet gone through a pack of razor blades between the six of them, did just that with 1998’s Fourth From the Last. So the question is, now what?
The Ws makes some impressive musical strides on this disc, incorporating blues, rockabilly and even a bit of ragtime into its Brian Setzer schtick. Producer Masaki and trombonist Dennis Culp (Five Iron Frenzy) help the horn arrangements sparkle and snap. Especially noteworthy are the New Orleans leanings of «Stupid» and the full-throttle brass charts on «Tip From Me».
If you’re expecting deeper scriptural analysis, you’re not going to find anything as incisive as «The Devil ls Bad», the band’s debut hit. But a twisted sense of humor continues to pervade The Ws’ music and is used to great effect to make a spiritual point. «Stupid», for example, starts out poking almost mean-spirited fun at a granny who attempts to dry her poodle in a microwave oven. But by the song’s end, the most cutting comments are aimed at Christians: “We throw the heathen into a panic/ As we’re bombing abortion clinics/ While insisting to the cynics/ They will know we are Christians by our love.” Not every tune on Trouble With X is as sassy, but it’s still a deft dodge of the sophomore slump. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, December 1999]
> Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/1N8RqNHqNtnveaul3nlQ25)
CD tracklist:
01. Rather Be Dead
02. Saturday
03. Bully Go Home
04. Country Roads
05. Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts
06. Play The Game
07. Stupid
08. Tip From Me
09. Where Should I Go
10. Used Car Salesman
11. Nothing
12. 101
13. Chump
14. Two More Weeks
15. The Rumor Weed Song
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by 5 Minute Walk Records. Available at Bandcamp: https://thews2.bandcamp.com/album/the-trouble-with-x
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