AMG Review of Caviar

Todd Martens
All Music Guide

Smart, sassy, and with a major emphasis on cool, Caviar's self-titled debut is Midwestern power pop that's just as intent on being sexy as it is on providing air guitarworthy riffs that'll likely cause some kid to bust a few mattress springs. Buoyed by the success of the #Charlie's Angels film, which features Caviar's silly yet infectious lounge rock song "Tangerine Speedo," this Chicago group led by Blake Smith (formerly of Fig Dish) effortlessly tosses out irresistible radio-friendly glam-inspired tunes. Sure, the band owes a heavy debt to the Rolling Stones, T. Rex, Cheap Trick, and the New York Dolls, and a cynic could easily play spot-the-influence on nearly every one of these 11 tracks, but Caviar is too much fun for that. It's familiar without being derivative, despite the fact that "Goldmine" rips a refrain straight from a Jerry Reed country song and neatly livens it up. After all, it's hard to fault a leader like Smith when he can pen a line like "She's Thomas Jefferson/I'm William Howard Taft," place it over an arena-ready guitar, and not make it sound ironic. Smith's clean and wide-ranging vocals, perhaps a tad reminiscent of Robin Zander, are well suited for both his sarcasm and self-righteousness, as well as for the soaring chorus that propels past the big beats of "OK Nightmare." From the digital cockiness of "Flawed Like a Diamond" to the bombastic, striptease power chords of "Sugarless," Caviar connects the retro cool of Urge Overkill with the unselfconscious attitude and studio gimmicky of Garbage for a glossy, hard-to-resist debut.