weightlifting album review

real detroit weekly

by matthew stern
august 18, 2004

Trashcan Sinatras
Weightlifting (spinART Records)

Rating: 3.5/5

It's probably somewhat of an unfair generalization to claim that Scottish indie artists are a world-weary lot.  But there seems to be something to the idea that from the earliest days of My Bloody Valentine to the acoustically driven jangle-pop of Aztec Camera, indie bands that hail from the land of Dolly (you remember, the cloned sheep) manage to be unmistakably catchy while infused with resoundingly wistful emotion.  the Trashcan Sinatras' Weightlifting is no exception to this; the record is at its best on explicit Aztec Camera-influenced tracks like "It's a Miracle," which provides catchy indie-pop while dealing with dour topics.  The Sinatras' work has been spotty since 1990's Cake, and though Weightlifting has a few songs that resonate memorably, others seem to stop short of exploiting the infectious leads the band is capable of offering.  On one hand, "It's a Miracle" is bouncier than one might expect out of a track that deals with love falling apart, but is fantastic because of it.  The syrupy "What Women Do to Men," though, moves slowly and arrives nowhere.  Even if the Sinatras are better off writing happy-sounding songs for sad people, that's not to say that their moodier tracks are uniformly weak; it's just that a few occasionally run the risk of obscuring the disc's high points.

Reason to Buy: You need a few more songs to bum you out.
Best Listening Experience: "Got Carried Away" and "It's a Miracle"

Originally appeared in the Real Detroit Weekly.