| Susquehanna | ||||
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| Studio album by Cherry Poppin' Daddies | ||||
| Released | February 19, 2008 (online Only) June 10, 2008 (CD) September 29, 2009 (re-Issue) |
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| Recorded | June - July 2007 | |||
| Genre | Rock, worldbeat, ska, pop rock | |||
| Length | 45:25 | |||
| Label | Space Age Bachelor Pad Records Rock Ridge Music (2009) |
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| Producer | Steve Perry | |||
| Cherry Poppin' Daddies chronology | ||||
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| Alternate album covers | ||||
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Alternate artwork
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Susquehanna is the fifth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records in February 2008, and later re-issued on Rock Ridge Music in September 2009.
Susquehanna marked the Daddies' return to recording after a nearly decade-long break, following their brief hiatus in 2000 and sporadic touring throughout 2002 - 2006. The album follows in the multi-genre concept album format of the band's previous records, featuring a strong Latin and Caribbean-influenced sound in addition to the Daddies' traditional fare of rock, swing and ska.
Contents |
The music of Susquehanna is predominantly influenced by Latin and Caribbean music, incorporating strains of flamenco ("Roseanne"), soca ("Tom the Lion"), bossa nova ("Breathe") and reggae ("Blood Orange Sun") alongside the standard Daddies territory of swing, rockabilly, ska and glam rock. "Bust Out" (and its Spanish language translation "Arráncate"), is a Latin rock number peppered with spaghetti western guitar riffs and mariachi-styled trumpets. Also included is a re-recording of "Hi and Lo", a ska punk song that was written by frontman Steve Perry for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the mid-1990s, ultimately ending up as part of the Daddies' own repertoire and becoming a staple of their live shows.[1]
Perry explained that the album's tropical slant was due to his prediction that one day "American pop will owe a huge debt to world sensibilities...these I wanted to explore and potentially boil down to some fundamental building blocks that might lead toward a new, more international style".[2] Stylistically, Perry said he based the structure of Susquehanna on James Joyce's Ulysses, in that each of the songs were written in a distinctly different style and genre but the album as a whole was thematically coherent.[2][3] He further elaborated in an interview with Songfacts that he drew additional inspiration from Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Pierrot le fou, in the regard that "songs are a means to an end. Genres reflect off each other." [4]
| “ | It's like a little movie, doing what I always do with genres, which is to use them kind of like paint. I use various genres and grind them against each other. I like to put a flamenco song next to a song that's a glam rock song next to a song that's a swing song, so that the flavor changes.[5] | ” |
Like the Daddies' previous albums, Susquehanna is written as a concept album. Described by Perry as a portrait of "various relationships in decay", each song deals with memories, all written in the format of an abstract narrative following a character in the aftermath of a broken relationship.[6] Perry has summarized the essence of Susquehanna's story as being "about losses and continuing on. Its about love, doubt and fatigue...and ultimately about gratitude".[7]
News of a new Daddies studio album first surfaced in mid-2006 during a radio interview with Steve Perry. He confirmed that a new album was in the process of being written and would cover some new territory for the band, drawing on Latin, tropical and reggae sounds, though it would contain a few swing tracks as well.[8] Most of this new material was debuted during the band's 2006 US tour. On February 9, 2007, the band released a collection of demo songs available for purchase: the reggae-tinged "Blood Orange Sun", the Latin-inspired "Bust Out", and the flamenco ballad "Roseanne".
According to a blog on the band's official MySpace page, recording began on the 25th of June. By September 5, the record was finally tracked but not fully mixed, and given the title Susquehanna, after the river near where Perry grew up (up until then, the album went under a number of working titles, including Truth & Consequences and The Good Things). Perry confirmed that there were 12 tracks on the album, and that they were "...all part of the same story..... does that make it a rock opera, concept album or just a bunch of stuff that happened?"[9]
Susquehanna was released for digital download through the Daddies' official website on February 19, 2008, before being made available on CD on June 10, 2008. Both versions were available for purchase only through the band's website and concerts until their signing to Rock Ridge Music in 2009, when the album was re-issued and given a national release on September 29, 2009, alongside their ska compilation Skaboy JFK.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AbsolutePunk | 86%[10] |
| Allmusic | [11] |
| The Celebrity Cafe | [12] |
| PopMatters (2008) | 4/10[13] |
| PopMatters (2009) | 8/10[14] |
| Punknews.org | [15] |
Critical reception of Susquehanna ranged from mixed to positive: while its low-profile release went mostly unnoticed by major media outlets, various internet publications were polarized over the album's format, either praising the band for their musical experimentation or criticizing them as being inconsistent. AbsolutePunk.net awarded the album an 86% rating, stating "there are only good things to say about the Cherry Poppin' Daddies new album", calling it "full of fun and surprisingly entertaining".[10] The Celebrity Cafe gave it a rating of 8.5, summarizing the CD as "for someone who is looking for something different ... it's fresh and it's different and it's about time".[12] Metro Spirit delivered most of the praise on Perry's "secret weapon" voice, adding "being backed by a blistering horn section and hotshit guitar player certainly doesn’t hurt either",[16] and Blogcritics also gave the album a positive review, describing it as "pleasurable listening",[17] and in a later re-reviewing, lauded the album's narrative concept and lyrical interconnectedness as an "amazing undertaking".[18]
On the opposite end of the critical spectrum, Allmusic gave Susquehanna a rating of 3.5/5, claiming that it lacked "oomph or punch" and the band ultimately "leave[s] the listener with little pop".[11] Reax Music Magazine noted that the only tunes the reviewer felt succeeded were the ones that stuck to the band's original swing formula,[19] while PopMatters called Perry's songwriting attempts at being multi-genre "jumbled", "smug" and "flat-out overstuffed", though praising "Hi and Lo" as being "absolutely extraordinary".[13] In a 2009 re-review by a separate author, the album was given a score of 8/10, citing the blend of genres as "the truest overall representation of the band" and the Daddies' "best work so far".[14]
All songs written and composed by Steve Perry.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bust Out" | 4:08 |
| 2. | "The Mongoose and the Snake" | 3:20 |
| 3. | "Hi and Lo" | 3:39 |
| 4. | "Blood Orange Sun" | 3:20 |
| 5. | "White Trash Toodle-oo" | 2:39 |
| 6. | "Julie Grave" | 3:24 |
| 7. | "Roseanne" | 3:10 |
| 8. | "Hammerblow" | 3:00 |
| 9. | "Tom the Lion" | 4:08 |
| 10. | "Wingtips" | 4:10 |
| 11. | "Breathe" | 4:00 |
| 12. | "The Good Things" | 3:40 |
| 13. | "Arráncate" | 4:07 |
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Total length:
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45:25 | |
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