There’s goofy and there’s goofy and there’s folks who refuse to draw a line between either. Whilst the words ‘oddball’, ‘tangential’ and ‘fruitcake’ sound fun enough when in the hands of true visionaries, in the hands of fools they’re simply an indication of madness. Camper Van Beethoven fell loosely in both camps. Camper Van Beethoven offshoot, Cracker, featuring principle camper, David Lowery, on the otherhand simply fell over and died. And Leftover Salmon? Well what do you think? As the name implies, Leftover Salmon are a ramshackle jam crew of Colorado minstrels peddling loose and fruity bluegrass. And if that doesn’t sound put off, I don’t know what does. What makes it even worse is that ‘O Cracker, Where Art Thou’? is a simply re-hash of old Cracker songs with a certain ‘twist’. Re-imaginings, re-workings, re-inventions – call it what you will – it’s still like trying to follow the plot of a never-ending story. The fact that songs like ‘Eurotrash Girl’, ‘Teen Angst’ and ‘Happy Birthday’ were never technically classics to begin with, doesn’t seem to have deterred these fools from turning them on and jamming them over. This might seem like breathing new life into an old fart, but it’s more akin to the retelling of an old joke. And what wasn’t very funny to begin with, just seems cheerless in return.
Whilst Camper Van Beethoven were so shambolic and so irrelevant that were able to pull something of curious worth from the remotest of musical territories, Cracker just seem tired and patchy in the extreme. A bit like Frank Black when he’s not trying and a bit like Jack Black when he’s trying too hard (as ‘Eurotrash Girl’ clearly testifies).
The exception to this, of course, is the slinky banjo-led re-interpretation of the Cracker signature tune’ ‘Low’ (“I’ll be with you girl/Like being low/Hey hey hey like being stoned”) which sounds as stunning here as it does anywhere else. ‘Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)’ on the otherhand, now sounds regrettable and pointless.
If you’re looking for a little lightweight Americana and a need for even more alt-country, then you might just find it amusing. If you’ve had enough all that, steer clear,as for all its musical ability and clever irony, it’s still a salmon that should never have made it out of the water.