Cracker
's third album,
The Golden Age
, was uneven, but it also suffered from bad timing: when it was released in the spring of 1996, the bottom had just fallen out of alternative
guitar rock
, and
was left without the large audience that made their first two albums hits. Realizing this conundrum, and approaching middle age, frontman
David Lowery
decided to stop trying to score modern
rock
hits and simply play for
's fourth album,
Gentleman's Blues
. Picking up musical cues from
Kerosene Hat
and the quieter moments of
,
Lowery
and his partner,
Johnny Hickman
, fall back to their beloved '70s
album rock
, mixing up
blues-rock
hard rock
Southern rock
Dead
-like jams. Apart from
's characteristically quirky, absurdist lyrics,
sounds as if it could have been recorded in the early '70s. It does sound as if they no longer care about being contemporary, but their easy charm and shambling delivery are so appealing, it doesn't matter if the album is indeed a retreat. Beneath the surface, however, there's a certain weariness unheard of in earlier
albums. Many of
's songs, such as
"Seven Days,"
have a bitterness that's barely masked by his irony and songcraft. It may be a shock to discover those sentiments lurking behind these appealing songs, but that's what makes
worth repeated listens. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine