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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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La Rocca
Ok Okay
Dangerbird
There is a pile of classic records, empty bottles, some cards and a full ashtray. In the thick haze are two men discussing the idea of clichés. One man suggests that clichés are what they are, because they work well. He explains that clichés fulfill their function and have endured the test of time. As such, he argues that they so are valuable tools of the art of songwriting.
The other man has different ideas. He adds that in order for something to become a cliché, it has to work TOO and thus is like an old overused method, or a predictable story, outdated and invalid.
After much reflecting, sleepless nights, paranoid delusions and the like, I have concluded that there is an almighty blob of ambiguity lurking between classic and cliché. It's the elusive zone where perspectives get foggy; a great riff to one person is a tired trick to another, and such is the subjective nature of music.
When I listen to Ok Okay by La Rocca I hear classic songwriting, classic chord patterns, verses and choruses. Catchy hooks and riffs, cheesy sing along anthems and hymns. It's got a few country edges, but they're smoothed off in an Eagles kind of way. I am reminded of Coldplay at times, Tom Petty at others, there are even the sickly scents of Lifehouse, and I'm pretty sure I smelt some U2 in there. Actually, the comparisons are endless.
Ok Okay feels familiar, but too familiar. It sounds deliberate, even classic, but any spontaneity or chaos seems to have been well and truly polished and compressed out of it. Unfortunately this one sits too far on the cliché side of the fence for my tastes. It's slick rock-pop, radio ready tunes wading in slushy melodrama.
—Mike Crook
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