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Kudos to Milwaukee duo At the Wellfor reviving and putting a new spin on a 1970s style without making it soundretro. At the Well's Solomon Behnke and Cory Jacobson bring the Me Decade'sacoustically folky pop/rock into a compelling sphere with some metallic guitarsolos and the kind of oddly funky grooves that were once a given in the work ofguys such as Gordon Lightfoot and Bruce Cockburn. At the Well, however, exudesa vocal presence reminiscent of the better side of pre-grunge-explosionhairspray metal, such as Tesla or Cinderella.
The sum of theband's parts makes for a commercial sound that might not have an easy fit on2010 commercial radio. That's likely to be OK, because the polished qualitythey offer here should find converts on its own terms. If the album title tipstoward pretense, that's true of the lyrics as well. That said, the musings ofexistential angst are mustered with enough passion to make the navel-gazinglargely moot. If they can replicate on stage the studio lushness they haveproduced here, At the Well could be something else to make Milwaukee famous.
