CD Review: Hot Buttered Rum
Christina CaldwellIssue date: 10/29/09 Section: Music
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Limbs Akimbo
(Independent)
Grade: C-
Many will call Hot Buttered Rum a bluegrass band. Others will call them a string band. The truth is that they're technically neither.
The majority of songs on Limbs Akimbo don't have the picking style that would signify bluegrass. A more accurate genre might be to call HBR "Americana" or "prog-bluegrass," but why put a label on it?
The West Coast, Southern-style pickers make a respectable effort with Limbs Akimbo. Opening song "Two Loose Cannons" is cowboy rock-meets-Tom Petty with stunning vocal harmonies. "Two Loose Cannons" and following track "Something New" could easily pass for indie music, but cut deeper into the album and you'll find a mish-mash of country sounds with no clear perspective.
The closing and title track "Limbs Akimbo" has a certain beachy simplicity that mimics Jimmy Buffet, while "Summertime Gal" sounds more like something you'd hear on the "sounds of" sample station near the greeting cards at Target. This one would probably fit well on something called "the sounds of Appalachia." Basically, it could put you to sleep.
Add the kitschy, annoyingly cutesy "Sexy Bakery Girl" into the mix, and Limbs Akimbo is a good start to the soundtrack of a Lifetime movie where a small-town gal overcomes abuse to make it in the big bad world of country music.
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