While Whelan has had recent success as
both an artist and producer, he is smart enough to get out of
Marine's way to let him do his thing. His thing is crunch and hook,
not unlike artists such as Springsteen, Bon Jovi and the like--- not
formula but familiar. You want to rock, Marine will give it to you,
pulling out the acoustic to break the monotony (as on “I'll Soon Be
Gone, where the guitar finds a loping groove to ride--- with extremely tasteful slide work by Whelan).
There may be only five, but they are a
solid five. “Big Dark City” sets the pace with midtempo guitar
crunch, “Dawn Come and Gone” powers up the beat, “Freeze em
Out” rides the thin line between Springsteen and the Hi-Fi period
of ex-Pavlov's Dog David Surkamp before giving way to the tasty acousticity of “I'll Soon Be Gone.” Marine saved a special song
to end the EP, a tribute to a friend known as “Mike Lee,” who I
would have loved to have known. “He died of an overdose,” Marine
said on his one-sheet, “but it's not about that. This song is
about what a good guy he was and how he always had your back. He was
who I would like to be, the lyrics embracing the man (“If you get
along with him, you'll get along with me--- and if you got time for
one, we got time for three--- now to the other side of town, with the
solitude you found, and all the way back again, Mike Lee”).
In a world in which you might think
mainstream rock has all been done, Sam Marine makes it that much
better by playing it simple, honest and true. Maybe five songs is
enough. Maybe I'm just wishing for more. Five will do for now.
Let's hope it is long enough for music fans to adjust their ears.
You can hardly find a song out there these days without a fiddle,
banjo or mandolin. This is good enough, though, that it might just
break through.
