SuperSoFar – The Drama Club
Title: The Drama Club
Artist: SuperSoFar (www.myspace.com/supersofar)
Record Label: Independent, 2008
Reviewer: Shauna Brock
Track Listing:
- Better Late Than …
- The Drama Club
- Thursday
- Probably
- Faith
- All My Own
There are times when I realize, as a music person, just how lucky I am to live in Salt Lake. Hold on, what’s that you say? You’re a music person and you live in Utah and you like it?
Hell. Yes.
With rock and alternative acts coming out of the woodwork like roaches in an abandoned building, Salt Lake is choked with bands that have insane amounts of talent. And, this past year, one of the best loved released the EP The Drama Club.
SuperSoFar is a fixture in Salt Lake culture. Seen regularly at the clubs as they open for nationally known Salt Lake acts, and constant fixtures on KBER 101.1’s Salt Lake Sound Check, it is only a matter of time before this incredibly talented group takes their place alongside Utah acts such as Broke City and Royal Bliss on the national stage. With their progressive/alternative/rock sound that is highlighted by lead vocalist W. James Woods, the band is a comfortable cross between Coldplay and The Killers, but Woods’ vocals add a depth that those other bands are lacking.
All six songs on <i>The Drama Club</i> are beautifully woven tapestries of music and thought. Woods’ gravelly voice croons over the intricate instrumental work but does not take so commanding a lead that the group is lost behind him. The instrumental talents of Mike Stipanov on guitar and Bob Hanson on drums are heightened with the assistance of Jonni Lightfoot (Air Supply) on bass and Marc Hanson on guitar. While the lyrics tell one story, the music is its own separate but comparable creation. Very rarely is a band able to pull off a musical sound that is so demanding of conscious attention while still achieving a popular music sound – yet SuperSoFar seem able to do it without a second thought.
With a sound that is as at home on rock stations as on alternative/adult contemporary feeds, it could be insulting to label SuperSoFar as a crossover act, but in this case the band should take the term and run with it. Even as tracks like title track “The Drama Club” speak to the alternative rock crowds, there are ballads such as “Thursday” that belong on VH1’s <i>Top Twenty Countdown</i>. Take that for the compliment it is – it is difficult to maintain quality while appealing to the wide audience SuperSoFar is able to command.
Worth more than one spin in your CD player, <i>The Drama Club</i> is much more fun to listen to than most of the songs that are in constant rotation on just about every radio station. If you want fun, fascinating, and talented, skip Coldplay’s latest release and get your hands on <i>The Drama Club</i> instead.
