The Lawrence Arms - Guided Tour of Chicago (CD)

All Music Guide

The Lawrence Arms are basically a reconstituted version of mid90s Chicago poppunks the Broadways, whose singer/songwriters Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan serve the same function here, backed by drummer Nick Hennessy. Unlike the Broadways, where Kelly and McCaughan shared vocal duties about evenly, Kelly takes the lion's share of the lead vocals on A Guided Tour of Chicago, spitting out his politicallytinged lyrics in a harsh, sorethroat bark. Similarly, the Undertoneslike melodic poppunk of Broadways albums like Broken Star is here flattened into a more onedimensional blast of speed and fury. The sharp, cogent lyrics of songs like "Someday We're All Gonna Weigh 400 Pounds" and the Chicagospecific "The North Side, the L and L, and Any Number of Crappy Apartments" struggle against the monochromatic blur of melodies and riffs that don't change enough from song to song to keep A Guided Tour of Chicago from sounding like the band's just circling the block. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guid...e Read more Less