Tunes Young People Will Enjoy
Jesse Valenzuela
Gabriel Records, 2002
REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/03/2002
The great bands are all about synergy. The Beatles, the Stones,Fleetwood Mac… the list goes on and on, but the equation issimilar each time -- the whole is greater than the sum of theparts. McCartney, Jagger, Buckingham -- these are great musiciansand great songwriters, and every one of them fares better in thecontext of their bandmates than alone.
The Gin Blossoms didn't stay at the top nearly long enough tomake it into that class, but they're a band that produced anamazingly strong body of music in just a few years before breakingup prematurely in 1997. In my mind, their reunion is some of thebest rock and roll news heard this year, regardless of worthy soloefforts like Blossoms guitarist Jesse Valenzuela's recent Tunes Young People Will Enjoy.
Valenzuela was actually the Blossoms' lead vocalist in one earlyincarnation of the band, and his harmony vocals are one of the keybuilding blocks of the band's full, guitar-driven sound. He's alsoone of the band's principal songwriters, along with lead vocalistRobin Wilson. So the potential is there for this to be a greatalbum -- and yet, I can't help thinking of Lindsey Buckingham'ssolo albums while listening to it. Good songs, excellentmusicianship… and a nagging, near-constant sensation ofsomething missing.
Valenzuela's voice has a pleasantly smoky edge to it, and hissense of melody is terrific. On ballads like the melancholy"Damaged Goods" and the country-rock croon "Broken-Hearted Kind"(written with longtime Eagles collaborator J.D. Souther), he wrapshis gently lilting voice around the songs and gives them just thetender shadings they need.
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