Bliss

1990's Bliss largely erases the goodwill generated by the Dharma Bums' somewhat flawed but largely promising 1988 debut, Haywire: Out Through the Indoor. Where the first album had an engaging poppy edge (possibly thanks to producer Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows), Bliss is a leaden, sluggish record with promising songs undercut by plodding tempos and an over-reliance on feedback and harsh guitar tones. More damagingly, the songs aren't nearly as interesting as before. For every catchy track — like the first single, "Pumpkinhead," or the countrified closer, "A Place to Be" — there are two more songs that drone on far too long with little in the way of lyrical wit or melodic invention. Jeremy Wilson's voice, raspy on the debut, is get-that-boy-a-lozenge hoarse on most of these songs, and Eric Lovre's guitar lines are much less appealing. Bliss is nothing more than basically competent but utterly unimpressive alternative rock by numbers.