Cheap Date is a discount-priced label sampler that gives an indication of the new rock bands Columbia Records had in the pipeline as of early 2003. Not surprising for a major label, the crop sounds a lot like the kind of rock that has been successful in recent years. The performers range from garage rockers to heavy metal bands, with not much that sounds new or different. "Breathing" by
Stereomud and "Nothing Sacred" by
Memento are familiar late-'90s, early-2000s metal.
Kenna's "Freetime" reveals a band with more of a synthesizer sound. Liverpool's
the Coral on "Dreaming of You" sound different from the others, but not really new; they hew back to a '60s sound with a prominent organ on a song that, with a nudge, would turn into
the Supremes' "My World Is Empty Without You."
Porch Ghouls' "Bluff City Ruckus" and
the Raveonettes' "Attack of the Ghost Riders" come straight from a garage.
The Mooney Suzuki seem to have been listening to
MC5, since their "In a Young Man's Mind" is a thinly veiled rewrite of the proto-punk classic "Kick out the Jams." And
Overseer's "Screw Up" closes the proceedings with a dash of electronica. Maybe these are the bands of the future, but they sound an awful lot like the bands of the past. The only one that really stands out as more than a genre exercise is
the Ataris, whose "In This Diary" boasts clever lyrics, giving them the chance to join
Wheatus among the better young rock bands around. ~ William Ruhlmann