Clayton Park

AMG Review of Clayton Park

Gina Boldman
All Music Guide

Clayton Park is more 1976 than 1999, but it's not Thrush Hermit's fault they were born in the decade they honor here. The album is a vast improvement from the somewhat thick and muddled Sweet Homewrecker -- their dynamic concert performances are perfectly captured on Park, and the slight restraint in their vocals shifts the energy and attention to the music -- a smart move -- which results in a solid, experimental and genuinely captivating record. The heavy, plodding tone that drenched Sweet Homewrecker has been all but replaced with album-rock guitar riffs, catchy midtempos and echoing vocals on tracks like Joel Plaskett's "From the Back of the Film" and his stadium-rock anthem "The Day We Hit the Coast." Rob Benvie's "Headin' South is sneering, pouty punk-pop reminiscent of Television, but he isn't afraid to make a melodic rock anthem like "Western Dreamz" either. Ian McGettigan's "(Oh Man!) What to Do?" is how the Stones should have sounded in the late '90s, and Plaskett's "Oh My Soul!" -- one of Hermit's greatest songs -- is a laid-back, summery Southern rock tribute that would make the Allman Brothers and Lynynrd Skynyrd proud. Clayton Park is Thrush Hermit's best work to date -- and it perfects their hard rock sound while expanding it as well.