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User Reviews:
Bedlam Ballroom
Sure, I'm getting to this review two years late, but better late than never. I have to say my piece.
I've read a lot of reviews that all seem to say different things.
Anyway, cutting to the chase, When Tom Maxwell left the band and Stacey Guess died, the band just wasn't the same. Different reviews of this album say different things. Some say they stuck to their old sound, others say they went progressive.
I personally think neither is really the case. Now, whereas this album isn't that bad, it's nothing in comparison to the previous three. First of all, it's horribly over-produced. The first three albums had clever arranging and songwriting. The new album sounds too slick, and that ambient big room sound is gone. There is a definate wanting to get creative and bust out from a pidgeon-holeing in a neo-nutty dixieland band, but it all seems contrived and just tossed-in. The noisy tracks on "Perrenial Favorites" were far more progressive than anything on "Bedlam Ballroom". The new horn players and horn arrangements are too slick and it ruins the original rough-edged sound that the Zippers had, and some of the songs sound too much like the quickly decaying modern swing sound. Some others sound like a studio band trying to copy the sound that the "Hot" album had, and some just try too hard to be neither.
Whenever I'd listen to the Zippers before I heard Perrenial Favorites, it amazed me how much they weren't really "Hot" 30's Jazz, they weren't really Dixieland, They weren't really Swing, they weren't really Punk, Calypso, Ragtime, Country, Bluegrass or String Band music, though they so obviously had influences from all such areas.
Then there a small handful of their songs that, fiddles, clarinets, banjos and all, defied any kind of category or influence.
This album, however doesn't even seem to be even trying to fit into a successful niche, it's more like they're doing their best immitation of themselves, and throwing in some keyboards and electronic noise to justify being able to say they're being progressive. It doesn't totally ruin the overall album, but it's definately flat in comparison to the rest of their material. It might, however, be the last effort that ended up killing the band.
