Spin Doctors Provide Heathy Dose of Rock with New Album

By Ian Rice
Arts and Lifestyle Editor


Nice Talking To Me, the new album by the Spin Doctors, is two things. One, it is the first instance in which the band (in any of its various incarnations) has released new music since 1999. Two, it is a reunion gathering, featuring the original band for the first time in just over a decade. Normally, these two factors would be enough information for anyone with good sense to stay away from the album. After all, reunion rehashings very rarely pan out. Instead of the band recapturing their past glory with a strong set of new, forward-moving material, most acts opting to head down the reunion trail see fit to rely on the nostaglia of their heyday alone. The usual problem with that is the band is usually not up to the challenge, the peak of both their creativity and their ability clearly in their rearview mirror.


Such is not the case for the Spin Doctors, however. Rather than trying to recapture their glory days (which were somewhere around 1993, when the world was enraptured with the overt pop hit "Two Princes"), they act like they never happened. The Spin Doctors seem to have approached Nice Talking To Me as if it was their debut recording, fueling each track with the hunger, drive and desire that is usually only reserved for fresh acts. Not once do they try to recreate any of their biggest hits or rely strictly on the sound of their biggest album (which was their 1991 debut, Pocket Full of Kryptonite). Instead, Nice Talking To Me follows the next natural step from where the band left off with Here Comes the Bride in 1999.


The only factor that changes that natural progression slightly is the return of original guitarist Eric Schenkman and bassist Mark White (Schenkman left the band in 1995, White in 1998), which has nothing but a positive influence on the band's songwriting. Nice Talking To Me finds itself blending the best elements of its predecessors into the successful sound that neither of the two were able to fully realize. You've Got to Believe In Something was guilty of being too pop-oriented at times and Here Comes the Bride was criticized for taking some of its experimentation too far. The return of Schenkman and White ropes in Baron and Comess' occasional tendency to drift and allows the band to create one of the best albums of its career and, more importantly, of easily the last ten years.


The album opens with its title track, "Nice Talking To Me," which is a dirty guitar riff paired with an extremely catchy melody that gets things off to a riveting start. The track gives the first hint at the elements that the album carries throughout - a harder edge and a consistent lyrical theme. That theme? The ups and downs and relationships. I know what you're thinking: "Songs about men, women and love? Surely you jest." But the Spin Doctors do it in a way that makes music's most tired lyrical fodder seem alive. Instead of just singing about love or the loss thereof, Baron tends to rely on the duality of relationships. Many of the songs deal with the concept that people don't always get along, but that's part of real love. It's a painfully honest approach that works amazingly well.


The album saves its best track for its single, the phenomenally good "Can't Kick the Habit." A slower tune, this is the stuff the Spin Doctors are made of. Baron's lyrics are delivered beautifully by his powerful vocal abilities, Schenkman's guitar is awe-inspiring and White and Comess provide an impeccable foundation for their bandmates to build upon. "Can't Kick the Habit" should be a tremendous hit, but it most likely won't be. But the disgrace that is today's commercial radio climate can't stop the track from being a hands-down winner.


The bottom line is this: Nice Talking To Me is a fantastic album that any fan of rock music should pick up without one iota of hesitation. The world may have turned its back on the Spin Doctors years ago, but the strength of this album and the hope it provides for future releases surely means that they will be taken notice of again soon enough.