Sometime during the nineties, the tradition of finding a niche and sticking to it fell out of favor. Suddenly, the walls between hip-hop, noise experimentation, power pop and even standards dropped, as did innumerable others, and the act of musical creation came to resemble cut-and-paste storyboarding as much as anything else. A product of their age, Ann Arbor, Michigan five-piece Getaway Cruiser participates willfully in this genre-crashing movement, fueled by a love for music and the creative energy of a mad scientist. As their self-titled debut boldly exclaims, the experiment was a success, and all of pop history is fair game.
From the album's opener, "I'm Fine (I Find)" (which features a rap appearance by Pras), GETAWAY CRUISER has a little of everything. Explosive guitar crashes a la Townsend find themselves thrown atop breakbeat rhythms and DJ acrobatics. Elsewhere, as on "Not Yet Gone," the guitars take a flashy turn, with hard rock lead work which would be more at home on a Kiss record. Above it all, the unique delivery of chanteuse Dina Harrison, by turns smoky and detached, gives Getaway Cruiser a wistful , elegant edge, making this debut a truly well-rounded affair.