Here I am, back with my reviewer’s pen and paper, ready for a new song. I had people give me numbers on Twitter, I counted off to find my genre, my artist, and then ultimately, the song to review. And that’s how we arrived at…

Artist: Good Old War
Song: World Watching
Recommended by: a bunch of people on Twitter, indirectly

Obviously, I can’t have much of an idea about this. I don’t remember what genre it was. I think I saw something about Philadelphia. The album artwork looks like something Stompermonster and I might have created after a particularly sugary candy high. The blindfold stays wrapped tight on this one.

Who it sounds like before I listen to the first note:

Maritime: This guess is based on the album cover and my feeling that it’s something Stomper and I would have listened to. We often ate Mambas while listening to Maritime (something we called a Maritime party) and if that’s what Good Old War turns out to sound like, it’ll be upbeat pop punk, light on the crunch, the jangle turned up in the mix. Ultimately, I’ll smile when I listen to it, but maybe it won’t be a super lasting part of the catalog.

Cold War Kids: I know that everybody listened to that album when it came out (and at this point there might be multiple albums) but I never listened to them. I assume it’s some R.E.M. type rock, hipped up for 2011. Something that we might have called “college rock” two decades ago. Really earnest lyrics about wanting to change the world, written from a perspective of idealism that will later get crushed when the bass player takes a job at AT&T selling phone plans to large institutions (mainly prisons). I could be off on this. I could be off on the Cold War Kids. Educate me.

Queens of the Stone Age: I have NO idea where that one came from. I asked my brain to think outside of itself and for some reason QOTSA popped into my head. That’s odd on a couple of levels, the first of which being that I don’t anything from the QOTSA catalog and I only know that one song that had the deer in the video and that the dude who sang for that band is married (?) to Brody Dalle who used to sing and play guitar for The Distillers. If that’s what Good Old War sounds like, it’ll be heavier, musically educated metal. Damn, that sounded super pretentious. Que sera, sera.

Let’s shut off the Jets to Brazil, cleanse the channel, and introduce ourselves to Good Old War.

:02 We’ve got acoustic guitar and some non-drum percussion. Upbeat. Immediately my Cold War Kids and Queens of the Stone Age guess are out the door and gone.

:10 Vocals come in, full on harmony. I’m instantly reminded of the Beach Boys. But if Paul Simon was one of the tag along members of the Beach Boys.

:23 Singer has a hint of Bob Dylan in his vocals. I’m not a big Dylan guy (or a Dylan guy at all for that matter) but I hear him, tonally, in the opening singing. I’m not prone to “hearing” Dylan in every guy singing over an acoustic guitar.

:44 Cool little transition. There’s some heft behind this.

:55 Even though, based on less than a minute of one song, I’d say this isn’t my thing exactly and that I’m not excited about it the way I’ve been with some of the other things I’ve reviewed, I really do like the harmonies. I tip my cap to them.

1:12 This was really professionally recorded. It’s got great sonic qualities. I’m impressed by all of that.

Final thoughts:

I’ve made comparisons to The Beach Boys, Dylan, and Paul Simon–three music world icons.

Three icons whose records I don’t own.

I know I’m in the minority when it comes to that fact. Additionally, I recognize the superior production skills on “World Watching,” I appreciate the harmonies–they’re great. But this just isn’t the kind of song that I would normally gravitate towards. I know that there are people who would love this, and if you told me that Good Old War routinely sold out 30,000 seat festival concerts, I wouldn’t doubt you. They have a big sound. Just not for me.

If you’re a fan of the Graceland era Paul Simon (I don’t really have a frame of reference for other things in his catalog) you might very well like this. The chorus reminds me of the old Matthew Wilder song, “Break My Stride” which felt a little random, but not in an off-putting way.

If you’re inclined to like “hippie” music (whatever that means), you might love this.

Check out Good Old War’s “World Watching”