Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers - No More Beautiful World

They are Arizona's own quirky, smart, alternative, rockin' country roots band. All the local groups like 'em. They fill in on other local albums, share songwriting skills, and lead the way when it comes to Arizona Americana/alternative music. As the Refreshments, Roger Clyne and his pals made national charts with their breakthrough masterpiece album, Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy, as well as for the theme song for the perennial animated show King of the Hill. After the breakup of the Refreshments, drummer P.H. Naffah and Roger Clyne formed the Peacemakers. No More Beautiful World is their seventh album, coming on the heels of last year's Four Unlike Before, and of course, they don't disappoint. Clyne's gorgeous, unexpected turns of phrase are still as much in evidence as they were in his Refreshments songs - he co-mingles a rich Southwestern musical feel with interesting, thought-provoking lyrics that might make you laugh, make you think, or just make you sing along. Whether he's taking a stab at the world stage in "Goon Squad" - "So many riches, too many poor/ Too many generals stabbin' flags in a foreign shore/ New season, new reason, same ol' war... now/ Who let the goon squad in?" - or just thinking about his own busy mind in "Noisy Head" - "I got... toys in the attic/ Monsters under the bed/ Ghosts in the cupboard/ I got curtains made o' lead/ Bats in the belfry/ Goblins out in the shed... Well, I was cryin' for a vision, I got static instead/ Boy, oh boy, I got a noisy head."

I could wax rhapsodic about Clyne's great lyrical skill, but it speaks for itself, really. There's the lighthearted if frustrated look at life in "Lemons" - "Sometimes I slumber on a bed of roses/ Sometimes I crash in the weeds/ One day a bowl full of cherries/ One night I'm suckin' on lemons and spittin' out the seeds" or love in "Maybe We Should Fall In Love" - "No you/ No me/ Baby only we/ Melt like sugar/ Into black coffee/ Our race is run/ Our chase is done/ No longer may we flee/ Maybe we should fall in love," and with each song it's easy to get involved with the music on an emotional, visual level. You see, feel, think, and enjoy. Clyne's easygoing voice accompanied by Steve Larson's solid lead and rhythm guitar work, Naffah's percussion, and Nick Scropos' bass and piano skills make this a strong overall group, a bunch of guys who play in clear harmony with each other, comfortable together and with the music they play. Clyne wrote all the songs, working with co-author Johnny Hickman on "Bottom of the Bay" and Andy Hersey on "Wake Up Call." Versatile musician Clif Norrell joins them on several tracks, chiming in with trumpet, trombone, organ, Wurlitzer, piano, and steel drum. The CD is accompanied by a cool DVD which includes more than an hour's worth of stuff, including documentary The Verse and the Chorus as well as videos and a slide show. Clif Norrell (Refreshments, Gin Blossoms) also produced, mixed, and engineered the disc.