by: Sean Boy
On the two previous Promise Ring efforts, Very Emergency and Nothing Feels Good the band chiefly wrote hyper-kinetic, punky pop songs brimming with hooky, off-beat lyrics that begged frantic sing-alongs. Their songs rang youthful and at times, even innocent, but always smart. On each album previous, there's usually one mid to slow tempo song, grown up and mellowed... On Wood/Water grown up and mellow is The Promise Ring's MO. No longer the exception, grown up and mellow is now the rule. One can understand when a band doesn't want to repeat itself album after album. And in fact, repetition is one thing The Promise Ring has not been guilty of. With each album the band has pulled in the reigns and tightened up ship. With Wood/Water the boys have gone slack. Not slack in songwriting (there's some fine songs here: "Suffer Never," "Get On The Floor"), nor slack in the production (Steven Street's has polished up the album marvelously), but slack in enthusiasm. Not only have all the songs slowed down, but singer Davey Von Bohlen's delivery is lackluster as well. Never an outstanding singer, Von Bohlen always made up for his limited abilities in lyrical twists and sheer spunk. So much so, that not much attention was paid to his singing. He was having so much damn fun, that all you could do was sing along and geek out to the songs. Now the lyrics and the singing are so straightforward. Lukewarm. Call it maturity, call it growing up, or call it what it is: dull.
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