I sometimes question a band’s sanity. I mean, forget the countless hours spent practicing and rehearsing, just so that they can play a $1,000+ instrument in front of two or three drunk punters. Forget all the heartache that goes with yet another lost job or relationship breakup as they are on the road trying to ‘make it’. But, ‘State Cows’? Come on guys, what were you thinking of? Then we have the album cover, which appears to be a VW Camper Van that has been turned into a jet plane with the registration ‘TLK2UL8R’! When this was sent to me I thought that someone was just having a massive joke and that this album would be the wrong side of awful. How wrong I was.
What we have here is two guys, Daniel Andersson (vocals, guitars) and Stefan Olofsson (keyboards, synth bass) who have brought in loads of guest musicians to complete a West Coast masterpiece. As implied by the title, this is their second album, but what isn’t implied by their name is that these guys have been strongly influenced by one band more than any other, and in fact this started out as a straight tribute band called ‘2nd Arrangement’. Yep, what we have here boys and girls is Steely Dan. To stay in the zone, as it were, they have used no less than seven guest guitarists to help out on solos. The result is something that in all honesty could and should have been released in the Seventies, and happily fits in with what Steely Dan were doing at the time. They have not copied any of the songs, but the style has been lifted in its totality – so much so that at times it is hard to realise that this isn’t a long lost album but is in fact something brand new. Just play ‘Mister White” and you will see what I mean. If you enjoy ‘Aja’, then you will love this. Just a shame about the really awful band name.
www.statecows.com
