weightlifting album review

the times (acadiana - louisiana)

by arsenio orteza
september 8, 2004

Trashcan Sinatras: Weightlifting

(spinART)

Rating: Four back-alley Bacharachs out of five.

Nearly a decade after vanishing into the '90s alt-rock ether, these Scots return as if from suspended animation, their echoey vocals, shimmering guitar chords and melancholy melodies every bit as winsome now as before. What limits the impressiveness of this accomplishment somewhat is that, having had so long to come up with another album's worth of material, the Sinatras won't stop a world that has, as they say, moved on merely by recapturing past glories (or, as in "Welcome Back" [not John Sebastien's] by recapturing R.E.M.'s). On the other hand, what accentuates the impressiveness of the accomplishment, besides such compilation-worthy new songs as "Got Carried Away," "It's a Miracle" (not Barry Manilow's), "Trouble Sleeping" and the title cut, is that their past really was glorious. And now it's their present, too.

Originally appeared in the Times.