Band: Trip
Album: Naked
Genre: Pop punk/Powerpop
Best Element: Catchy, upbeat tunes
Website: http://www.triponthis.com
Label: Haven Arts, Inc
Email: info@triponthis.com
Much of Trip’s lyrics consist of excessively suggestive, misogynistic, and juvenile subject matter. The first (and title) track, “Naked”, exemplifies this: “She took off her panties/And her big brassiere/she was standing there naked…” This undoubtedly catches an audience’s attention on shock value alone; however, long term attention and attraction may be saved for a juvenile and predominately male audience, while alienating more sophisticated audiences- as well as females. Other subjects covered are women who nag too much (“Blah Blah”), and g-strings being left behind (“G-String”).
To be fair, though, they do occasionally deviate from this oversexed content, with lyrics about being unsure of where you stand on political issues (“Open Ended”), seeking fame (“Nothing Special”), and unrequited love (“Scars”, “Indecision”, “All That She Wanted”). Unfortunately, much of this is clouded by, at times, sickeningly sing-songish rhymes – both in the “serious” songs as well as the more explicit ones. Examples include: “His life was nothing special till he won the lotto/…/the sky’s the limit is his motto” from “Nothing Special”, and “My head is pounding nothing’s clear/Was I just dreaming she was here/Something for me to find was laying on the floor/Her g-string from the night before” from “G-String”. Overall, when these guys are not lamenting their lack of sexual relationships, their ideas are pretty good – they would just benefit from some songwriting lessons to help them more effectively communicate their message.
It is in their music where the not-so-good rears its ugly head. Their music is, for the most part, upbeat and incredibly catchy. The more explicit the song is, the more catchy it is, so, rather unfortunately, the song gets stuck in your head- ridiculous lyrics and all. Also regrettably, while they are extremely good at orchestrating vocal harmonies, their overall sound is just as generic as every other band that gets their 15 minutes of MTV fame. This could be good if they’re just trying to make it to the top of the charts – but there is nothing truly groundbreaking to be found within this album.
The high point of this CD is the song “Scars”, which almost feels like it doesn’t fit on this album. This song is more somber, a little more personal, and a little more sensitive than the other songs. It doesn’t fall into that sing-songish rhyme scheme and is a nice break from the poppy, sexual theme which pervades.
Nevertheless, to do what Trip does, they are ballsy, and it has obviously earned them some notoriety as their music has been featured on the “Smallville” season 1 DVD and on MTV’s “Undressed”. Sure, this is a good CD to listen to if you don’t feel like thinking or taking things seriously, and it can be good for a laugh.
-Andrea Goodwin