Music On Vinyl (2020)
In 1997 I was writing reviews for my college newspaper and was spending an inordinate amount of time hanging out at Flipside Records in Pompton Lakes, NJ. In addition to all of the great punk and indie records that were coming out at in the mid 90s, it was also the pinnacle of the failed major label band. There were so many great bands that put out an album or two on a major label, sold essentially nothing and then ended up as cutouts or promo CDs hanging out in the used bins of record stores across the country.
Kara's Flowers were one of these bands. Now, I am pretty sure that Reprise sent a copy of this record to me to review at my paper, but it is just as likely that I bought my CD as a promo for two dollars from the Flipside used bin. I was (and still am) taken by the fuzzy pop brilliance of album opener "Soap Disco." The rest of the album cools off a bit after that, but is a consistently good listen from start to finish (though "Oliver" comes pretty close to the high point of "Soap Disco"). I can't say that I consider The Fourth World an essential listen, but it's a CD I've been carrying around for almost twenty five years and when I found out they finally put out a vinyl version all these years later, I just couldn't resist.
Now, the weird part of all of this is that several of the guys in this band went on to be in Maroon 5. I can't say I know much of anything about them other than giving them a quick listen about a hundred years ago when I heard the were 'ex-members of Kara's Flowers.' I thought the new version was pretty bad and moved on with my life. They are famous now, and I think it's funny that they're embarrassed by their record from 1997, but I thought it was fun back then and it's still a good listen now. There's no accounting for taste.
Kara's Flowers - The Fourth World:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-RtTvF7pbbc4uU-pcUOFUtlYIWHQU0B8
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