Not that a little pride for local ’90s heroes is something to be ashamed of. But Minneapolis invests Soul Asylum with a mystique that’d be deemed ridiculous anywhere else.
That said, I tried to listen to The Silver Lining, the group’s first studio album in eight years, with an open mind.
It’s largely inoffensive, which is a nice way of saying that I almost made it through the whole thing in one sitting. But somewhere along the way, perhaps while Dave Pirner was wailing about a “Bus Named Desire” (yes, I said “Bus Named Desire”), I started having flashbacks to little Timmy, missing since 1987.
The bus song rocks out in a way that’s hilarious and exaggerated, and convinces me that Soul Asylum is vying for an opening slot on the Poison tour. The band’s melodies are occasionally catchy, in a bar-band-from-the-‘burbs way. But Pirner’s lyrics aren’t worthy of a high school poetry mag. The opening track opines, “You might be right/You might be wrong/You might just think your life has gone on for too long,” and later, “It won’t take long/You can’t go wrong/Stand up and be strong.”
For what it’s worth, I hear the band’s great live, although, as you can imagine, I’m not exactly counting the days until the next show. Sorry, guys. I just don’t get it.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2006.