Apparently, the album's title is intended to reflect its extreme eclecticism, and the opener, 'It Didn't Move So I Ate It' is 'out there!' Perhaps I've been exposed to more 'out there' stuff than most, but it sounds relatively tame to my ears. A bit of a modern jazz / psych / muzak wig-out, with no shortage of fried, frazzled energy and parking circuitry, but far out... not so much.
Lyrically, there are some decent stabs at being a bit different, although it.s perhaps fair to say that not all of them are entirely successful. Take for example, .When I was a Child,' which features the line, 'At School I drew spaceships, yeah I drew my identity.' It's a bit 'JCB Song': go figure.
'Late Night Radio' is 'classic' in all senses: classic themes, lyrics, structure (bouncy verse / chorus with a guitar break in the middle), and for the most part, it's a pretty conventional set of singer / songwriter songs based around either acoustic or electric guitar and vocals. It's on the jauntier side, often accentuated by the augmentation of the arrangements with percussion, bass and synths, but it's not all that eclectic and pulls no surprises in any way shape or form.
'Oasis' sounds very much like Rupert Holmes' ‘Escape' (perhaps better known as 'The Pina Colada Song,' as it was later subtitled, pop-pickers) in the chorus. There is no way in the world that this can be a good thing.
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Thankfully, Mr White - the man who is Eutoxita - does subsequently redeem himself a bit. 'Sky Can Fall' is a bit of a progfest, but also with a grungy edge that brings more weight to the table, and a new style to the sonic pallet. The same is true of 'Walnut Hill,' which is a real US country-tinged alt-rock style number, and features some nice harmonies, and closer 'Punk Rock for Breakfast' is both fun and uptempo (even if he does sound a bit like Billy Joel with a sore throat trying to compete with a big overdriven guitar and piston-paced drum machine).
It's not nearly as eclectic as the press release might lead us to believe: the album does sag a little in the middle, suffering from a clutch of mid-tempo acoustic tracks that don't really do very much, but it isn't bad by any means, and it is very definitely a quirky collection of songs. Put simply 'Trainwreck' has its moments, but not nearly enough of them, and it's not nearly as exciting or eye-opening as the title or artwork might suggest.
http://www.eutoxita.com/
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