The Mavericks: Trampoline

Much like Los Lobos and Marshall Crenshaw, The Mavericks will be around a long time, continuing to make music that sounds like it's been around for much longer. The group's fifth album, Trampoline, dabbles in everything from rock and pop to country and soul, all the while sounding like it's still 1955. Raul Molo's vocals conjure up the ghost of Roy Orbison with frightening exactitude, and on songs like "To Be With You" and "Dream River," he comes up with the kind of pretty pop ballads with which Orbison would doubtless feel comfortable. The rest of Trampoline, though, is all over the map: From the slick electro-blues of "Tell Me Why" to the south-of-the-border mariachi of "I Should Know," to the Southern gospel of "Save A Prayer," these heavily orchestrated, precisely crafted songs jump genres without hesitation—and, unfortunately, without much thought. The intricate arrangements tend to overwhelm whatever tangible emotional investment the band made in Trampoline, as the record's heart is all but swept away by weighty horn lines and lush string sections. With such a hit-and-miss collection, there are, of course, hits: "Fool #1" finds a good shot of soul in an old Tin Pan Alley-style pop song, and the saloon-swing of "Dolores" is welcomingly simple and sparse. But those moments don't arrive often enough.