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EDIT INFOCatch 22 - Dinosaur Sounds
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Album Details
- Artist: Catch 22
- Album: Dinosaur Sounds
- Label: Victory
- Year of Release: 2003
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-01-24
RecommendWell, Jeff Davidson didn't last very long as the vocalist of Catch 22. Basically one album and he was done. That's too bad because I really enjoyed Alone In A Crowd. Dinosaur Sounds is the return to the front for Ryan Eldred. He sung back up and some of the lead on Alone but Dinosaur Sounds is his game. I'm wondering if the album title here is any reference to the ska thing getting old. Not that Catch 22 ever really did the ska thing. Instead, they inject horns into their fairly punchy punk. On Dinosaur, the band tends to ease up a little on the hardcore feel that they had on their previous album and rely a little more on the ska styled riffs. It sounds quite refreshing but not quite as groundbreaking as Alone. Listen to "Chin Up" and you can hear their focus in a nutshell. The band is full of great musicians and Ryan can still write some killer ska-core songs. If these guys were around about five years earlier they would have been rocking stadiums guaranteed. I'll give Catch 22 credit, they are carrying the torch for ska-punk and really are doing a fine job of it. Does anyone care at this point in time? There are plenty of people that still get a kick out of this genre but I have a feeling that it will never be a top seller. It doesn't make Dinosaur Sounds a bad album though. There are some pretty damn fine songs on here.
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on 2006-10-24 AndyFromJersey Said:
I’ll admit it. I am, in fact, reviewing this album nearly three years after its original release date. However, it simply had to be reviewed by a diehard fan of the band. I hope to be the one to fill that need.
Dinosaur Sounds, the third full length album by New Jersey third wave ska heroes Catch 22, is an excellent cross section of a band at an awkward point in their career. Their sophomore effort, Alone in a Crowd, depicts a band freshly stripped of their hometown innocence, due in part to Keasbey Nights era lyricist/guitarist/singer Tomas Kalnoky, currently of Streetlight Manifesto. And now, with Dinosaur Sounds, we see the band try to take its own unique brand of late nineties ska in a new direction.
First and foremost, though it will mean little to anyone who doesn’t have much experience with ska, the horns on this record are far more swing and jazz influenced that Catch 22’s previous pure-pop hooks and riffs. The general feel of the music does not in any way resemble that of “real ska,” having no emphasized offbeat and hardly any barre chord guitar to speak of. The punk aspect of the music is also much more prominent in a poppy, Blink 182 sense, as opposed to the happy go lucky, rapid fire stylings of Kalnoky’s signature songwriting. Now, do all of these things make Dinosaur Sounds completely different from the way they used to be? Well, yes. But does that mean this is a bad album? Not at all.
Key tracks like the six-eight timed, extremely danceable “Beguile the Time” and digital cable single “Wine Stained Lips” constructed mostly by the extremely capable tenor sax player/vocalist Ryan El prove that despite the changes they’ve undergone, Catch 22 still have the power to create hard but fun, tough but catchy songs that fans old and new have come to know and love. Other recommended tracks include the high energy instrumental “Lamont’s Lament” and the mellow, swinging “Chin Up.”
It’s true that the album has its weaknesses. But just maybe, detractors of this record are looking a little too far into Catch 22’s past for decent tunes, failing to realize that they’re still putting out great, if different music. If you want them to imitate Keasbey Nights, this isn’t the album for you. But if you’re willing to listen with an open mind to a good band trying a few new tricks, give it a shot, and allow yourself to be amazed.
Rating: 5/10
