The Silver Seas High Society by: Joseph Coscarelli Mon:05-Nov-07 Label: Cheap Lullaby Year: 2007 WB rating 59 out of 100

In the 1970s there was a far less garish wave of inevitably seminal acts that didn't resonate from the brazen sex-hammer pounded by rock gods like Led Zeppelin or the sludgy rumble of Black Sabbath. Humility resounded from acts more content to strum along come what may, without howling to welcome the impending apocalypse or hoping to bring it on themselves. The more passive voices of the era included a class of many singer/songwriters including John Denver, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor alongside bands like Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers and occasionally the Eagles. Nashville, Tennessee's The Silver Seas are students of this amiable, melodic school.

Formerly known as the Bees (not to be confused with the British group aka A Band of Bees, who demanded the name change), The Silver Seas have served up a heaping, sugary piece of '70s folk-rock pie on High Society. Brimming with big harmonies, bright acoustic guitars and big money production, the album is almost overly ripe, teetering on the edge of getting too sweet or going too soft. That is, it sounds so good that it takes a long, hard second thought to attempt to distinguish if the actual songs can stand alone. A fair share of throwback charisma (and cheese) make High Society an enjoyable treat, but hinder an ability to deem it the potential to be truly enduring.

At its finest on the top and bottom, the album's contrary bookends -- first track 'The Country Life' and final number 'The Broadway Lights' -- each display a keen sense of melody over deep, reverberating full-band numbers. All the while, the incongruity of the subjects put forth the type of worldliness that pulls a Southern artist from clichéd pitfalls. A deft vocal tone from lead singer Daniel Tashian occasionally conjures John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, and its these light steps away from country-rock toward California that vary Society subtly. 'She is Gone' has a very 'Hotel California' vibe, another welcome variation, while 'Catch Yer Own Train' falls in line with the band's 'Country Life,' rotating around a jubilant harmonica line.

Not entirely reverent to the point of recalling more distant benchmarks like Gram Parsons or Buffalo Springfield, The Silver Seas suffer from slickness that, over the course of an entire album, over-polishes any outlaw grit or bittersweet pangs that flesh out country-rock's canon. To their credit, it is difficult to point toward any specific, massive missteps on High Society and its shining moments like the title-track's hook are engaging, especially initially. But with only timid, veering steps away from history's musical safe house, The Silver Seas ultimately leave something to be desired.