Everclear: Slow Motion Daydream

In 1995, Sparkle And Fade established Everclear's status as a top-tier rock band by mixing fist-pumping bluster with hard-won pathos and depth. Singer Art Alexakis, who made no secret of his past battles with abuse and drug addiction, wasn't just purging run-of-the-mill post-adolescent angst; he was transforming years of pain (self-inflicted and otherwise) into universal anthems about alienation and escape. A solid album, So Much For The Afterglow, followed two years later, but Alexakis has seemed rudderless ever since. Everclear's Songs From An American Movie–split into two flimsy albums, each sold separately in 2000–mixed retreads of the same old themes with cheesy toss-offs. Worse, it established another side to Alexakis' persona, often replacing the charismatic recovering addict with a smirking, unctuous huckster. The latter rears his ugly head only once on Slow Motion Daydream, but the offending single, "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom," is hard to forgive or forget. You see, when strippers and sluts who "got gang-banged in the bathroom at my high-school prom" grow up and get married, they become the titular Volvo-driving soccer moms–and, just in case Alexakis' disapproval isn't clear from the title, he adds that they "have blond, bland, middle-class Republican children / blond, bland, middle-class Republican lives." It would take some pretty great songs to dig Slow Motion Daydream out of that hole, but a few poignant moments do their part: "Science Fiction," "Chrysanthemum," and "The New York Times" capture the uncertainty and sadness of loss with maturity and grace, while "TV Show" wouldn't sound out of place on Sparkle And Fade, and that's saying something. Slow Motion Daydream isn't the knockout return to form it might have been, but it's significantly better than might be expected from the first impression its miserable single creates.