January 25, 1999
Buttercup (Spirit Of Orr)
Sweetly sincere and full of laid-back dreaminess, sure, but really no different to what previous trad-country resurrectionists like [B]The Jayhawks[/B] have done...
4 / 10
No sooner have we come to terms with the genre-busting likes of Grandaddy and Scott 4 than back come the country traditionalists. Buttercup is the Massachusetts five-piece's third album. It's got country aficionados in a lather, and sounds like it could have been made at any time over the past 30 years.
Which is no bad thing if it opens the ears of a new generation to the joys of Gram Parsons and Neil Young, from whom they borrow extensively, but really, it's just not that exciting. Sweetly sincere and full of laid-back dreaminess, sure, but really no different to what previous trad-country resurrectionists like The Jayhawks have done. In fact, but for Buttercup singer Jim Buni's reedy Neil Young voice, songs like 'I Just Saw Your Side' and 'Don't Talk' could be the work of The Jayhawks.
Such dyed-in-the-wool folk music will always return to its roots, but given the move towards more esoteric hybrids over the last couple of years, it's disappointing to hear something that sounds so old. Like the flowers from which they take their name, bands like Buttercup come ten-a-penny.
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