Blues Traveler Encourages Self-Mutilation

Some of the songs on North Hollywood Shootout could at best be background music at a place like Applebee’s, but the rest is garbage.
    
Blues Traveler fails when their overly popish style becomes poorly mixed with other various genres ranging from folk to gospel. For this album, the band found some inspiration from gospel music apparently, however, they only managed to acquire the genre’s crappy lyrics.

The result is the awful love ballad “Borrowed Time,” featuring lyrics that could make listeners want to slowly insert a steak knife into their thighs. Sadly, the track is nothing horrible compared to the pop-rock song “The Beacons.”  Listening to it makes me want to paint my walls red with my splattered brains.

Even after all the terrible music Blues Traveler brings to the ears, there is still a shimmer of hope for North Hollywood Shootout. “Forever Owed” starts the album off with a fresh synthesized beat and acoustic strumming with John Popper’s  amazing voice, which usually makes up for his less-than-mediocre lyrics.  The band actually does deserve some credit for this tune that is actually worth a listen.

“Orange In the Sun”  displays what most people like about Blues Traveler – a catchy song with a fun melody that features the classic, hot-damn harmonica solo towards the end. The music on North Hollywood Shootout might not compare to the hits “Run-Around” and “Hook” from the ‘90s, but it’s clear John Popper is the Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica.

Blues Traveler started out as a jam band in the ’90s, and over the years they have consistently produced records and performed live sets despite the death of their bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1999. They have been with us for so long and still manage to be on the radio. And no matter how uneven and misguided Hollywood Shootout is, the few quality tracks remind us all why the band still has droves of fans.