The Oscars were anything but interesting as Boyhood showed us that you can spend over a decade working on something, it doesn’t mean you’ll come out on top. Right after I hit play on Chinatown Security’s This Side of Paradise and was met with something I’m sure wasn’t 12 years in the making but hey – again, it doesn’t matter how long you work on something, it’s the story it tells. Which, in this case, I’d take this record over Birdman. I wasn’t smart enough to understand it. It may have well been that Wes Anderson movie.
Opening the record was a very punk rock song that had that Vines sound in a track that shares the name of the EP. Following that, things slowed and I was met with “Mercy.” I wasn’t really feeling this ‘90s college alternative scene. With “Come and Get It Now” I felt like all was right. We were back where we started and the energy was picked back up. “Dig! The Radio.” I had mixed feelings about this one and decided right at the start that when they slowed things down – I was not a fan at all. I could just imagine myself standing at one of their shows, this one starting and my face grimacing. The record then caps things off with “I’ve Got a Thing for Pleasure.” It’s like a mix between what I like, that Vines new-punk mentality and that slowed pace. In the end – I wanted more energy and liveliness from these guys.
It obviously took me way less time to write this then it did to make Boyhood or Chinatown Security to make this album. I can’t sit and judge one though because I’ve yet to dedicate almost three hours to a movie that’s a documentary about puberty or something. I can put my final two cents out there about the music though…It was an okay record. It was neither here nor there because what I really enjoyed – I wanted more of it and didn’t get. BUT I will say that you should give them a chance if you’re wondering why The Vines never made a comeback, or maybe they did and I just wasn’t paying attention. Either way, check out Chinatown Security’s This Side of Paradise, out now.
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