TUFTS DAILY

TUFTS UNIVERSITY

MEDFORD, MA

DAILY – 5,000

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1993

Idaho

The cover of Idaho’s album Year After Year is a thing of beauty — a surreal landscape of pink bushes and blurry royal palm trees. It promises much; or does it? After all, most surreal album covers scream “PRETENSION” louder than all get out.

Well, unfortunately, Idaho doesn’t just scream pretension, it is pretension. And bad pretension at that. From the first song, we knew it would be dark. The opening bars of “God’s Green Earth,” the first track, are dark, trying to be intense, and so pseudo-gothic.

Did no one ever tell Idaho that Gothic went out over ten years ago? Can we say, “you missed the boat?” Peter Murphy may be able to pull that miserable sound off but Idaho? Ew.

Lead singer Jeff Martin moans in every song in a deep, sad voice, complaining about the sad state of the world. Songs like “Let’s Cheat Death,” and “Endgame” should be telling of this melancholia. It’s sad to see artists so trying to be Bauhaus.

We suppose that the music on this CD is good. After all, the band members seem to be able to play their instruments, which is the very least we would expect from music today. But all the songs sound the same. That is,, with the exception of “One Sunday,” which is actually a catchy, entertaining piece of music — once you screen out that annoying vocalist.

Basically, the only thing that Idaho has to recommend it is the pretty album cover and the funky black and orange disc. The world would be better served if Idaho returned to waiting tables or whatever it is they did before they began to sing. —MU