Saloon - If We Meet In the Future
(Darla)
Upon hearing the first few bars of Saloon's album If We Meet In the Future, I thought "Velocity Girl!" Not the really good Velocity Girl—Copacetic—when they were trying to fuzz-out like My Bloody Valentine, but rather the really okay Velocity Girl—Simpatico—when they lost the fuzz and got really jangly. However, after hearing a complete song, that comparison fails to hold weight, as unlike Velocity Girl, Saloon has no real hooks and instead just repeat simple guitar patterns over and over again. Seeing as this is on Darla, the hope is that upon further listening, some really great drone pop would develop, like Sugar Plant's Trance Mellow side. However, the drones really never develop, and it really feels like they were trying to make straightforward pop but just failed, making the music seem more like drone. In places where a great drone-pop song would just burst outward into an drawn out, intense series of repetitions, Saloon just ends the song. Instead, it seems like the music is just there as a skeleton upon which to lay Amanda Gomez's vocals. And while they are really amazing vocals, they're not enough to carry a band.
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