Quantcast

Call for Feature Essays About Any Aspect of Popular Culture, Present or Past

Music
cover art

Josiah

No Time

(Elektrohasch; US: 6 Aug 2007; UK: 4 Jun 2007)

Josiah’s No Time is an album stocked with unabashed old school influences – “what classic UK rock is all about!” proclaims their website - and a guitar tone that sounds grounded in the ‘70s. They’re so retro, in fact, that they even adorn themselves with aviators and pose in black and white in their liner notes. Not that there’s anything wrong with paying your debts; but, with the popular explosion of acts like Jet and Wolfmother, retro style is becoming ever harder to tolerate. This is further confirmed by wailing vocalist Mathew Bethancourt, who comes out over the bluesy distortions as a watered-down crossbreed of Ozzy Osbourne and Robert Plant, and compounded by the songs, that have as much elegance and cohesion as an aged car changing gears. “No Time” exemplifies the record’s structure to a ‘t’, built around one vocal line followed by a stampeding metallic riff, set to a midtempo slog and strung into oblivion. The former carries on its clunky instrumental homage for two and a half floor-dragging minutes before singing even makes an entry. “Time to Kill” almost raises proceedings to a gallop, but musically it’s just a sped-up rehash of the other eight here. Sure, as clone music, you’d probably take it over the emo kids any day, but No Time is so faceless that it’s unable to function as real rock and roll in 2007.

Rating:

Tagged as: josiah
Media
Josiah - Live
Comments
Now on PopMatters
A Painting Come to Life: 'The Mill & the Cross' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
A Far Too Safe... and Strained... 'House' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 9:00 am]
'Safe House' Is Ersatz Edgy (Reviews) [Fri, 8:06 am]
The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 7:50 am]
  1. 'Nebraska': Bruce Springsteen's 'Heart of Darkness' (Columns)
  2. The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader)
  3. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 1: From 13Ghosts to Friendly Fires (Features)
  4. The Best Games of 2011 (Features)
  5. Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast (Features)
  6. The 10 Greatest Movie Spies Ever (Short Ends and Leader)
  7. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 2: From the Go! Team to the Phoenix Foundation (Features)
  8. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 3: From Real Estate to Youth Lagoon (Features)
  9. Lana Del Rey: Born to Die (Reviews)
  10. The Top 15 Madonna Singles of All Time (Sound Affects)
  11. Get Off of My Cloud!: 'Collecting' Music in the Digital Age (Features)
  12. Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Reviews)
  13. Google and the Production of Curiosity (Marginal Utility)
  14. Carole E. Barrowman’s Authorial Journey to Hollow Earth (Features)
  15. Tower Songs: Townes Van Zandt (Columns)
  16. Black Bananas: Rad Times Xpress IV (Reviews)
  17. “Don’t Let Me Fall”: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity (Features)
  18. The Gay Ole Countryside (Columns)
  19. Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks (Reviews)
  20. Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (Reviews)
  21. Counterbalance No. 67: John Coltrane’s 'A Love Supreme' (Sound Affects)
  22. The 10 Best John Coltrane Solos (Sound Affects)
  23. A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men' (Features)
  24. A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football (Columns)
  25. Chairlift: Something (Reviews)
  26. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - "Heart Attack" (Cosmic Kids Remix) (PopMatters Premiere) (Mixed Media)
  27. Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral (Reviews)
  28. The Barbaric (and Poetic) Yawp of Shelby Lynne (Notes from the Road)
  29. After Cease to Exist: The Far-from-Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Features)
  30. Mitt Romney Can Reside at Today's Proverbial 'Downton Abbey'... Newt Gingrich Cannot (Features)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.