In Stores Now: I Think This Is by Young Fresh Fellows

Image from the cover of the magazine Maski (Saint Petersburg, Russia) Issue No. 1, 1906

The Young Fresh Fellows have been around in some form or other since the beginning of the '80s, but they don't put out music much anymore. Not surprising, considering that frontman Scott McCaughey is a sideman in REM and Robyn Hitchcock's Venus 3, as well as fronting the Minus 5, a Pacific Northwest collaborative group of sorts. The last time McCaughey put out a Young Fresh Fellows record was 2001, in conjunction with a Minus 5 release. I'm not sure why he would want to put out CDs by his two different bands at the same time, but he's done it again, as I Think This Is was released at the same time as the new Minus 5 record, Killingsworth. I haven't picked that one up yet, opting for I Think This Is instead, even though I much prefer the Minus 5 record of the two released simultaneously in 2001.

I Think This Is is an odd record in that it's much more ordinary than you might think. McCaughey pulled in his friend and famous UK surrealist Robyn Hitchcock to produce this record, and it seems like an weird choice to me. McCaughey's songwriting is almost aggressively mundane, using intuitive melodies and structures with very plain observational lyrics. Often compared to They Might Be Giants in the past, this observation misses the mark because TMBG are obviously trying to be funny. The Young Fresh Fellows are just talkin' 'bout stuff.

Hitchcock's fingerprints are found in the sonics of the album, particularly the guitar tone and sound of the backing vocals, but the songs are what you'd expect from the Young Fresh Fellows. It's a really good set of songs, though, with some real feeling lurking under the plainness - "If You Believe in Cleveland" is funny and aching at the same time, and the as-stupid-as-it-gets "Go Blue Angels Go" bounces around like a Great Dane puppy. McCaughey's love of Nuggets-era rock and power-pop comes through in every song, and the album's only clunker is "Shake Your Magazines" (not a shocker that this one is actually by Chris Ballew of Presidents of the USA).

There are other non-McCaughey contributions on the album that work well. Peter Buck co-wrote the excellent slow-burning "Betty Let the Good Times Crawl", and Robyn Hitchcock's backing vocals (along with those of Kurt Bloch) sound great. I'm still not a fan of Tad Hutchison's oddly show-offy drumming style, but Bloch and James Sangster do their parts well. Bloch even contributes two songs of his own, including the great "New Day I Hate". The high harmonies on this one hit just the right spot for me.

"New Day I Hate" by Young Fresh Fellows