Just Us Kids - Dark Publications

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Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

As good a sound as he's ever put out April 17, 2008
19 out of 22 found this review helpful

"Just Us Kids" is a great sounding album. The guitar grooves are toe-tapping on the electric songs and compelling on the accoustic ones. Really good stuff. In fact, it might be my favorite sounding album yet.

The reason why I hesitate to give it 5 stars, though, is the political songs on the album. As far as modern day political ballads go, they're pretty good - but that ain't exactly saying much (see Eddie Vedder's drivel on an otherwise outstanding soundtrack for "Into the Wild").

It's not his opinions that bother me (to each his own), it's the overtness of them that I don't like. I think McMurtry is at his best when his songs are more metaphoric, when he creates characters and stories that carry deeper meanings below the surface. For example, "Hurricane Party" (great song!) and "Just us Kids" do this very well, while his political songs ("Cheney's Toy" and "Ruins of the Realm") abandon subtlety in order to score way-too-obvious political points.

If he wants to make his anti-Bush and anti-corporation points, I'd like to see them couched in more timeless or symbolic terms - like Bob Dylan's "The Times, They are a Changin';" i.e. make the song be anti-Bush without ever mentioning his name. That way, it's not just anti-Bush but anti-anyone-who's-like-Bush. Plus, his message isn't just relevant for 2008 listeners but for 2028 listeners as well.

That being said, this is a great album and I've really enjoyed listening to it.

4 out of 5 stars

Passionate Americana with a political punch April 16, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

McMurtry's built a sizeable resume since his 1989 John Mellancamp-produced debut and his 1991 collaboration with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely and Dwight Yoakam. The influences of that latter work still reverberates through his music, with Mellencamp's heartland rock, Prine's writerly words and Ely's maverick stance all providing input. Unlike those three, however, McMurtry often sings in a dry, near-monotone style that crosses the tuneful tunelessness of Dylan or Lou Reed with the wry asides of Ben Vaughn. His flat delivery seems at first like it would wear thin at album length, but his songs compel you forward, his band hits some exceptional grooves, and in the end, his singing and lyrical voices are closely aligned. McMurtry confronts current political issues with the sort of disgust that is surprisingly rare in contemporary music. The heavy blues "God Bless America" casts an eye on America's warrior-junkie pursuit of fossil fuels and the corporate soldiers taking point, and "Cheney's Toy" lays out the broad-scale and intimate impacts of the Iraq war. His measured vocals work perfectly here, keeping the bitter emotions at a steady, contemptuous simmer. Isolation pervades both "Hurricane Party" and "Fireline Road," the former allegorically tying to a storm's aftermath, the latter starkly spoken in its story of abuse. John Dee Graham plays a haunting guitar solo on the latter, Ian McLagan adds a terrific piano solo to "Freeway View," and Pat MacDonald blows blue harp for the harrowing homicide of "The Governor." McMurtry's a passionate man who ably expresses strong opinions with lyrical dexterity. He's effective with a limited vocal range, making up in tone and dynamics (and characters, stories and well-crafted phrases) what he lacks in notes. [2008 hyperbolium dot com]

4 out of 5 stars

Just say what you really think, James! May 8, 2008
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

The man's a genius, what can I say--he's got Dad (Larry McMurtry's) flair for words and his music mentors (Bruce Hornsby and John Cougar Mellencamp's) skill at putting together a killer song.

And no one would tell him to shut up and sing--because James doesn't pull punches about what he thinks. He'll belt out what he thinks in his road-worn Texas twang. No label's telling him what to do--"Just us Kids" is McMurtry's own production.

As a kid from the 60's, I like protest songs of all kinds, but McMurtry's given up his more subtle hammer and chisel for a power tool here, for example in "God Bless America (Pat mAcdonald must die" takes Timbuk3's two hit wonder, "National Holiday" quite a few steps further:

Gonna turn up the heat 'til it comes to a boil
Then we'll go get that Arab oil
We'll suck it all up through the barrel of a gun
Everyday's the end of days for some

The song sounds good, but will it stand the test of time?

If you want to hear something that's a bit deeper and still has strong take-no-prisoners lyrics, listen to "Fire Line Road," which details the story of how an abused child copes, distancing herself from her real life hoping it's all a reality show and "they can go home in a week or so".

"Ruby and Carlos" is also another standout, talking about a May-December romance between a man who packed up his dreams and drums leaving his woman out on the farm. The story-song parallels their lives as they go through wars, aging, alcoholism, etc.

"Fire Line Road," "Ruby and Carlos", "Just us Kids" and "Hurricane Party" make this collection merit 5 stars and those are the songs you should listen to if you love McMurtry's more timeless and elegant lyrics.

Rebecca Kyle, May 2008

2 out of 5 stars

We thought that he'd know better May 1, 2008
6 out of 27 found this review helpful

You know the bitter guy who just wants to gripe about everything and take shots at everybody else? Well imagine he made an album and you have a pretty good idea about "Just Us Kids". It starts off promising enough with a nice swampy rocker (Bayou Tortous) and the title track is an engaging track about grown-up kids with unrealistic dreams about how everything is going to be better in the future. This is undoubtedly the high point of the album. Things start to fall apart with "God Bless America" but at least musically still interesting. From there the songs are not only musically uninspired but lyrics full of bitterness and whining. The political commentary is trite and unimaginative, attacking the usual boogeymen--Bush, big oil, multinationals. Even worse he seems to have disdain for the down on their luck characters in his other songs, with no trace of sympathy or irony that I can detect. Not recommended unless you are into leftist paranoid vitriol.

5 out of 5 stars

Just Us Kids is just my favorite album this year April 24, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I have been listening to James McMurtry since way back when the track Painting By Numbers from his first CD Too Long In The Wasteland was released on KGSR 107.1 in Austin, Texas. I couldn't figure out who the artist was for the longest time. Then, I was working for some folks cleaning houses to make money for college - they happened to have Too Long In The Wasteland and Candyland as well. Every week when I cleaned their house, I'd listen to those 2 CD's over and over and I fell in love with the music.

I've been a fan since I knew James McMurtry existed and I think Just Us Kids is a fantastic compilation of his achievements. His heartbreaking lyrics, his political lyrics, cleaning up his musical style- this album has the best of all of it.

My favorite songs so far on this CD are the title track - Just Us Kids, an indian summer kind of mentality for growing old. I also love Ruby and Carlos. Just a good story. Also, on Bayou Torous, he does a fantastic job of fleshing out the guitar work from Sixty Acres.

There isn't another musician whose music I've followed this faithfully from the beginning and I always feel so blessed when these guys release another new CD.

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