Guster: Ooh La La (3/31/2024)

Guster: Ooh La La [Ocho Mule, 2024] I obtained my pre-release copy of Guster's new album (it's out on May 17,) at their show last night at MGM Music Hall, which, despite having a pathetic number of people standing, was transcendent to say the least. This album, their first since 2019's Look Alive, finds them taking a new stance- that of elder statesman rather than 40-year-olds who act like they're 22 (I say this with all but the utmost kindness). The latter is preserved via their live shows, which is something of a relief, but Ooh La La, despite being a late-career highlight, yields more mixed results, with the esoteric direction changes and the nostalgic showstoppers thrown on the same shelf together.

The record kicks off with "This Heart Is Occupied," an optimistic slow-burn evocative of Sky Blue Sky-era Wilco that namechecks Elvis Costello. "I feel you bristle at the slightest connection / As if it's fated on a course of correction," Ryan Miller sings, an example of the wordy tendencies of the lyrics here, something expressed further on the third track, "All Day." The opposite is true on "My Kind," where Ryan Miller's borderline screams and the song's almost bluesy rhythms are something of a relief. "God I'm afraid!" Miller yells at the beginning of the song, backed by an orchestra of drums. The raw, downhome feel of the song is widespread across the album, especially on penultimate track "The Elevator," a country-rock shuffle setting the stage for the string-laden closer, "Maybe We're Alright."

Several of the songs, as previously mentioned, could be thrown on anything Guster made between 2003 and 2010. "Witness Tree," an energetic slice of folk-pop, recalls tracks like "What You Call Love" off 2010's Easy Wonderful, and "Black Balloon" is an angstier update of their 2006 song "Lightning Rod." "Maybe We're Alright" serves a similiar purpose as Keep It Together's "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today," the hopeful closer to an occasionally worried record. The psychedelia on "Keep Going" and "All Day" sounds like an evolution of the sound on Evermotion and Look Alive, which works, although the occasionally banal lyrics on both songs prevent them from fully taking off. However, the songs are unified under the album, which prevents it from being the disjointed style-shuffle it wants to be.

However, the record's major flaw is that Ryan's songwriting has dulled a bit. The album keeps you interested, but just barely. In its 37 minutes, the tracks slip by quickly and you forget what you heard twenty seconds ago. "Maybe We're Alright" isn't the lighters-out fan favorite it wants to be, and the occasionally sarcastic "This Heart Is Occupied" lyrically falls flat for the most part. The magic of the music is still there, but it occasionally feels flatter, duller. It doesn't affect the album visibly to a non-fan, but it's still there.

In the end, this album deserves credit: it delivers, and it sounds exactly like what a Guster album in 2024 should sound like. It's a record for the fans, and it captures their live sound excellently. It's a good follow-up, and, 33 years post-formation, that's all we could ask for. [6.7/10]