Sometimes your muse takes you to weird places. Like 1997, for instance. It brings me today to Edwin McCain, who had a minor single hit in '98 with "I'll Be", a passable soft rock ballad. I was just listening to some late 90s stuff on Spotify and this came up. I thought hey, why not? And let me tell you straight up... this is the okayest album I've reviewed thus far.
Seriously. It's okay. An album embodiment of no strong feelings one way or the other. It's fine. Passable, even. But is there anything to say about it?
Well, Edwin McCain does try to foray into many different genres, which is commendable. There's a bluesy vibe coming off of "How Strange It Seems", some nice college rock guitar tones to lead off "Cleveland Park", and even an interpolation of nature sounds on "The Rhythm of Life", which winds up being one of the best songs on the album. Unfortunately, this genre-bending does less to accentuate any sort of personality Edwin McCain has and moreso just gets him lost in his own music. I feel like I know less about this guy than when I started. He certainly has interesting moves on this album, but they don't do much to tell me about what he's going for as an artist.
So it winds up being okay. Not many of the songs do much to evoke an emotion in my one way or the other. The only songs I really dug were the nature sounds song and "Through the Floor", a hidden track which actually turned out to be a nice surprise for the album's ending. Beyond that, it ranks slightly above "meh", with points to Edwin McCain's vocals and ambition in genres. It's okay. Give it a listen if you're interested.
6/10
Best Tracks: "The Rhythm of Life", "Through the Floor"
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