Review Summary: Car radio material.
Garage rock may well be the purest out of all the different rock genres. Indeed, most young bands start out in the
car hole of daddy, with the only goal being to have fun. They don't bother with writing long and technical complicated songs, it has to stay simple and have a certain drive or momentum. And if they're lucky, their youthful enthusiasm will be picked up by the general public; enough examples that show how one simple riff can turn quite a few lives around.
Which brings us nicely to the sophomore effort of the Jacuzzi Boys. The lads from Miami won't be starting a revolution (yet), but they sure know which bands actually matter - you can hear plenty of Kinks, Ramones and other standard 1-2-3-4 rock bands - and the package in which they put their catchy and light rock songs is the half hour spanning and tight Glazin'.
Light, because what their music misses is the exciting and mean punch of the aforementioned influences. Also, the vocals of singer Gabriel Alcala could have been a bit more dangerous - he's no Iggy, that's for sure - and it's pretty obvious this isn't really original stuff. These relatively minor criticisms aside, there isn't really anything
bad to say about the Boys' music, except maybe for the fact that "Silver Sphere" and "Zeppelin" will happily be skipped, while listening to the album. They are the longest tracks on here, which shows that the lads still have to work on creating material that stays interesting throughout its (longer) playing time.
Of course, that still leaves 8 songs. "Vizcaya" starts off the album and makes it pretty clear that guitar, bass and drums will stay tightly in formation. The opener is followed by the single, "Automatic Jail", and title track "Glazin'" and the Boys don't ever stray away from the formula. Variation isn't the name of the game here, although "Koo Koo With You" lets the album end with a more relaxed and groovy feel. Among the rest, "Crush" and - especially - "Los Angeles" are the standout tracks: both great for having mindless fun.
Conclusion: Glazin' won't change lives, that's for sure. It isn't dangerous, it doesn't surprise at all, but it's ideal material for the car radio.
