Music Review: Better Than Ezra, All Together Now

By Jeffery X Martin

Better Than Ezra deserves credit for being one of the few bands to make it through the Nineties with their personnel and integrity intact. Lead singer Kevin Griffin has one of the most recognizable voices in the business and the band’s standard blend of light ska and clever catchy choruses is time-tested and successful. At the very least, Better Than Ezra has always been less painful to listen to than Train.

All Together Now, Better Than Ezra’s eighth album, goes down familiar avenues. A lot of it will have you missing the days when Jennifer Aniston getting a new haircut was big news. There’s a weird comfort to that, though. Some bands try to completely reinvent themselves, and alienate themselves from their core audience. There’s no danger of that here; if you liked the band before, you’re going to enjoy this album.

Lead-off single “Crazy Lucky” is a lightweight affair, pure sugar pop and compulsively listenable. With lyrics like, “You roll your eyes like I’m full of it/Well, I Googled that shit,” there’s a strong sense that if you remember any line from that song, it’s gonna be the one with the “dirty” word.

All Together Now is consciously anthemic, with lots of “whoas” and “heys” for listeners to sing along with. Even in the slower songs, the modern power ballads, there’s plenty of space for singing along and careful dancing. Tunes like “The Great Unknown” come ready-made for either lighter-waving or turning on the flashlight function on your cell phones and swaying. While that’s all well and good, there’s nothing real spontaneous about it. All the playfulness seems carefully planned and researched for optimum effectiveness.

In fact, All Together Now seems designed to convey the simple message that Better Than Ezra may not be a great band, but at least they’re not Our Lady Peace.

Better Than Ezra is relentlessly happy. Even songs with serious lyrics are given such happy music that the point is lost. This especially rings true on the song, “Gonna Get Better,” which is a song about depression and suicidal behavior. You’d never know it though, because the music is about as serious as drinking slushies at midnight at a county fair. It really is okay to use minor chords in a sad song, and someone should tell Kevin Griffin that.

All Together Now is the kind of record you end up listening to in the car for weeks on end, simply because you forget it’s there. It changes from “yay, new music” to “erm, background noise” pretty quickly. In a way, that’s to be respected. After all, Better Than Ezra is familiar now, a comfort band. We listen and remember a time in this country when we were fascinated that David Schwimmer had a pet monkey on a TV show. And yet, we recognize the new things the group is doing. Our subconscious recognizes them and files them away, but in the end, there aren’t enough different ways of doing things, not enough formula busting, to make it stand out.

All Together Now was released by The End Records on September 9.

Tour Dates:
9/19: San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
9/20: West Hollywood, CA @ House of Blues Sunset Strip
9/21: Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues Anaheim
9/22: Solano Beach, CA @ Belly Up
9/25: Austin, TX @ Emo’s
9/26: Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
9/27: Houma, LA @ Best of the Bayou
10/10: Las Vegas, NV @ Wine Amplified – Las Vegas Strip
10/16: Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
10/17: Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
10/18: Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
10/24: Baton Rouge, LA @ the Event Center at L’Auberge Baton Rouge Casino & Hotel
11/13: St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
11/14: Sioux City, IA @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City – Anthem
11/20: Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
11/21: Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
11/22: Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
11/23: Birmingham, AL @ Iron City