The title of the Gentlemen’s Bet’s Big Gunpowder Falls kind of reminds you of Wilco’s (QRO live review) Yankee Foxtrot Hotel. About two and a half minutes in, you’ll wish the music on the album did as well. The band shows ample range and musicianship in six songs, but they are still working on what Ernest Hemingway called "the built-in bullshit detector".
Combining a bar band delivery with an iPod shuffle songwriting style, the Gentlemen’s Bet will keep you guessing. The opener "Small Talk" alternates between straightforward bluesy rock out and latin lullaby, which is as strange in practice as it is in theory, and goes on too long. "The Flood" was about six minutes and thirty-four seconds too long as well.
Other oddball tracks that must be mentioned include "The Waltz" (yes, it’s 3/4 time), which sounds like a b-side from the Zorro remake soundtrack, and "Bulldoze Bill", an old Western showdown in musical form about a bad guy who "is the boss", who "you don’t want to cross", who is "the best", who will "chew you up and spit you out like cud", who "roams the land like hounds that search for blood", who is – just to emphasize the point – "the best".
On the other hand, when the band keeps it short and direct they are hard not to like. "So Sweet" is the most enjoyable song on the album. It’s a nice little pop song that doesn’t try to impress, making it all the more likeable. These guys obviously know how to play their instruments and, with songs like "Bulldoze Bill", they obviously know how to have a laugh. The next step is to let the audience in on the fun.
MP3 Stream: "Bulldoze Bill"
