Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

Charlie said: I have Tina to think for my introduction to Guster. Guster is a group that seems like it should be more famous than they are. They have some amazing songs like The Captain, One Man Wrecking Machine, Satellite, Center of Attention and Fa Fa to name a few. Songs that deserve to be played and known yet seem to get minuscule respect and even less play.

“Easy Wonderful” has several songs to add to my list of great tunes: Architects and Engineers, Do You Love Me, Bad Bad World, and Do What You Want. Guster is a fun upbeat pop band that more people should know about. There are a few songs that did not work for me: On the Ocean, This is How it Feels to Have a Broken Heart, and Hercules.

Guster does not shy away from branching out and trying something new. They have done a nice job with “Easy Wonderful” keeping their high energy pop sound but at the same time trying different approaches. Overall I like this album, not enough to sit down and listen to it as an album but definitely enough to add a few songs to my ever growing play list, a play list that has quite a few Guster songs.

On the Tina/Charlie Promote it, Lend it, Deny it scale, I would, Lend it . . . with confidence.

Tina says:  I have Luther College to thank for introducing me to Guster. Luther tends to bring in a variety of small and big name artists for “free concerts” (it’s included in your tuition). Long story short, Guster was the first concert that I had the opportunity to attend while at Luther. I immediately feel in love with them. They’re amazing live. One of their band members plays the bongos and there are times when the band will break off in a small jam session revolving around the bongos. All and all they put on a great show.

I was so excited about the release of this album I purchased it on the day that it went on sale. I fell in love with songs like “Do you love Me?” “This Could all be Yours” “Stay with me Jesus” and “What You Call Love” (which was performed on a ukulele live). I did not enjoy Bad, Bad World, This is how it feels to have a broken heart (at the concert they had blue and red strobe lights and it was very strange). I think that this album is inconsistent, they can’t seem to decide if they want to have poppy songs or songs that are a little bit more psychedelic or mellow. It just doesn’t seem to flow from track to track, and it seems to be a little disjointed at times. This is not Guster’s best work….this was not easy, but on the Tina/Charlie deny it, lend it, promote it scale, I don’t feel so wonderful about giving it a lend it.