Caught in the Carousel

Red Wanting Blue

These Magnificent Miles
Fanatic Records

Red Wanting Blue

"Educated to a point, I guess/But are we writers?" wonders Red Wanting Blue's Scott Terry on his band's eighth full-length album. Terry is more than just an average writer, he's a great one, his songs coming with more depth and range than most songwriters of his generation. Not content to rely on one line, drive-by metaphors, Terry likes to see his work through to the end, sticking with a theme and thoroughly exploring it from all angles. "I would be a spaceman for you," he sings on the opening track "Gravity"—but to separate himself from the rest of the write-your-name-in-the-sky pack, he adds: "I would vandalize outer space/Remake constellations to spell our names." Elsewhere, "You Are My Las Vegas" finds Terry confessing to, "Live nude shows goin' on in my head" and feeling like the "King of all the fools." Armed with a Vedder-like growl and the ability to hit the high and low notes with pure pop muscle, he's a rock and roll poet, dropping couplets like "...we used to carve our names in the bark/Or write upon the windshield fog in the car/Sign autographs with sparklers in the dark" with stunning frequency. The up-tempo numbers are particularly winning ("Where You Wanna Go," "New Cool" and the apocalyptic battle march of "The World Is Over") and the ballads are breathtaking ("Probably Nothing," "Space Time"), rolling out with the kind of soulful exactitude of everyone from Counting Crows to Our Lady Peace to Pearl Jam. The only real mystery here is why this Ohio outfit hasn't yet achieved the mainstream success of the aforementioned bands. After eight albums it's the kind of question that could keep a guy up all night, but for Scott Terry and his bandmates, it's a waste of time to try to figure out things like that, because there are more pressing issues, like roads to be traveled and shows to be played. "I'm just a rolling stone in a band on the run," Terry declares. A great rock and roll pun by a great rock and roll band.

—Alex Green