Hey!Album Review

April 1999
Scott Hudson
The Tempest

I know I’ll get in trouble for saying this, but I don’t really get the Marvelous 3. I know they’re extremely nice guys who always have time for their (mainly female) fans, and they are also one of the few acts that actually takes the time to read and respond to posts on their AOL discussion board. And they have truly worked real hard, spending most of the past few years on the road before being signed to Elektra Records late last year. That’s all very commendable, and their brand of pure power pop should put this record on constant repeat on my Discman. But it’s not. To these ears, the record falls flat. Every song seems to recall something else I’ve heard before (particularly the "So You Want to Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star" lift on their hit single, "Freak of the Week,) and I truly cringe when I heard lyrics like "you were kool as hell like e-mail."

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I’m going to have to blame the failure of this record on their decision to rerecord this album after signing to Elektra. Instead of putting out the low budget, indie version of the record, the band went back into the studio and completely redid the entire record. The results are just too slick, as every note is just so perfect and clean. Rock ‘n’ roll should not be clean.