Shane Palko
Good Times
Reviewed by Dan Emmons
Good Times is described on Shane Palko’s website as “A collection of fun songs recorded by Shane and his friends over the course of one coffee-ful month, using an eight-track reel-to-reel tape machine.” It is very evident that this album is “different”.
Good Times almost has a Never Shout Never feel to it but with more of a spacey feel and less direction. The trippy sounds and compositions seem to be all over the place and the tempo is very hard to stay interested in. The vocals are rough and the overdubbing makes them less audible. It seems like a portion of the album could have been done without, or polished-up before release.
On a positive note, because of its raw recording nature, fans will enjoy the “realness” of the record. As far as going beyond that niche however, I do not see this record picking up steam. There are many beautiful melodies in this piece; I just wish they were highlighted more in the mix.
The combination of weak vocal tracking, slow tempo, and lack of direction were why I found it hard to stay interested between the tracks that were impressive and the rest. There are some fantastic songs on here, but they are too few and far between.
