THE OLD 97'S - BLAME IT ON GRAVITY (LP)

The Old 97's Blame It On Gravity On Vinyl LP

With Blame It On Gravity, the seventh Old 97's record and the second for New West, the band has made its definitive statement. "It's really exciting," says Rhett Miller, the band's lead singer and songwriter. "I read an interview with Randy Newman where he said that if your work is as good at 50 as it was at 20, you've won the battle. We're nowhere near fifty, but I feel like this collection of songs is the best we've ever done. And I loved our earlier albums."

From the opening notes of the first song, "The Fool," Blame It On Gravity is an archetypal Old 97's record, only more so. Back in 2004, the band released Drag It Up, which was filled with more personal and contemplative songs; the music adjusted accordingly. At other points throughout the band's career, it has tilted toward power pop (Fight Songs, from 1999) and the sounds of the British Invasion (Satellite Rides, from 2001). Blame it on Gravity finds the band turning up the amps and returning to the satisfying crunch of its early records. There are triumphant windmilling riffs, squalls of feedback, and upward spirals of guitar noise and that's just in "The Fool." "Bands go through a phase where they age, as people," Miller says. "During Drag It Up, all of us had gotten older and started families. That record was full of songs about mortality and aging. This record is more like a second childhood. More guitars, and they're loud."

In the past, recording sessions have taken place in Los Angeles, New Orleans or New York. This time, the four members of the band decided to make the record in Dallas, where the band started fifteen years ago. Blame It on Gravity came together during a three-month recording session that doubled as a homecoming. It was recorded in the same Lower Greenville neighborhood where the band formed and Blame It On Gravity is undoubtedly a record that sounds right at home.

The Old 97's Blame It On Gravity Track Listing:

1. The Fool
2. Dance With Me
3. No Baby I
4. My Two Feet
5. Ride
6. She Loves The Sunset
7. This Beautiful Thing
8. I Will Remain
9. Early Morning
10. The Easy Way
11. Here's To The Halcyon
12. Color Of A Lonely Heart Is Blue
13. The One