When Elvis Costello started out, he was heralded as a pop music innovator. So was David Byrne, leader of the Talking Heads. So was Blondie - though, most music critics being guys, they were more smitten with singer Debbie Harry.
For the most part, Oh, Ranger! doesn't have to worry about male music critics being smitten with its lead singer. There's surprisingly little eye candy accompanying the group's second CD release, Polyester Blues. The band members are reduced to shadows hovering below the liner notes.
But the band has plenty in common with Costello, Byrne and Blondie. In typical indie-rock style, Oh, Ranger! leaves it all up to its music. And that music has enough alchemy to qualify the band for future consideration as innovators.
Polyester Blues shows a real range of style. Think of it as the Apples in Stereo with a New Wave Jones or The Cure channeled through the Smashing Pumpkins, hopped up just enough to forget the angst.
Propelled by the clean, clear production of local Åber-producer Gil Sanchez - who also fills out the band's rhythm section with drummer Noelan Ramirez - Oh, Ranger! mines the fields for its pop rocks and unearths an album full of gems.
The presence of Lucas Spider's synthesizer gives the band a throwback sound that will please any 30-something with memories of Duran Duran's darker moments - and they were few and far between, believe me. But the band offers enough cacophony to render the'80s band immune.
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The album's opening blast, "Take Me Home," bursts through the door as a strident, explosive song that rocks like a collision between The Ramones and some hapless New Romantic band.
Nothing else on Polyester Blues equals the pure adrenaline of "Take Me Home," but the basic ingredients of the song continue.
There's a frailty to the band's brand of indie pop - notes threaten to go out of tune, singer Boyd Reno warbles just to the edge of dissonance, then rushes away from the precipice at the moment you think he's going to fall.
The best moments are when the band unleashes its energy, as it does spectacularly on the opening track and "For America," which includes the slightly sardonic line "Oh, Ranger! for America." The out and out rocker "Sheila" is a song so percussive that you might stop pogoing to check your boom box speakers to see if they're intact.
The band's mellower side carries most of the CD. The tone doesn't change much because the songs have the pent-up emotion and aggressiveness of the other songs.
The band manages to convey disappointment, ennui and even some angst without sounding sappy. By being just sarcastic enough, the songs still sing without letting that sardonic edge rip up the group's innate sense of melody. Reno comes across as the smartass with a heart of gold.
Songs such as "The Party's Over" and "Microphone" are stunning in their simplicity. Normally, a line such as "It's kind of like a heart, but you can't buy it" would descend into the worst kind of mope rock, but not with these guys. Instead it becomes this poem that probably isn't as deep as you think it is.
Every song on Polyester Blues has that sense of loss - "Breaking Up for Christmas" sums it up nicely. Sure the songs are introspective but not in a "quiet little guitar strumming party in a friends living room" kind of way.
These are emotions expressed over a beer in a crowded bar, where you have to yell to get anything across and occasionally find yourself screaming when the song on the jukebox ends abruptly.
The band's dogged experimentation could earn it innovator status at some point, but I doubt Oh, Ranger! is waiting to be anointed the next Talking Heads.
These guys would probably just settle for getting the girl and being able to make records once in a while. They might even get paid for it - at least the making records part.
