March 23, 1996
Pomegranate Bleeding
(Caroline}
Changes are afoot in the
potato state. Picture the painfully withdrawn guy who’s always sat alone
in the corner of the pub gradually pulling himself up from the stool,
challenging rent-a-gob at the pool table to an all or nothing match, then
winning on the black; suddenly, everyone
wants to be his friend. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily solve any of his problems, but...
Idaho are steadily moving from the heavy-lidded maudlin gloop of their early records into a place
that’s still not, strictly speaking,
jolly, but where the tension is allowed
to break free and seek a little daylight.
‘Pomegranate Bleeding’ is a lovely thing, a nest of
guitars sprinkled with the essence of spring and dominated by Jeff Martin’s sonorous voice as he revels in
the possibilities offered by his band’s ever more worldly approach. If before
he was Mark Eitzel fronting Codeine on a strict diet
of Red House Painters covers, it’s now something like Eitzel
leading a countrified Swervedriver on what close inspection
reveals to be a mere tattie skin’s width from Single Of The Week.
KEITH CAMERON