Year: 1989
Time: 38:29
Size: 89,5 MB
Label: Chameleon Records
Styles: Alternative Rock/Pop Rock
Art: Front
Tracks Listing:
1. Wonderamaland - 4:08
2. No Regrets - 3:53
3. Fireplace, Pool, and Air Conditioning - 4:20
4. Lullabye - 3:18
5. It's Hardly Enough - 2:33
6. Last Cigarette - 4:55
7. 70's TV - 3:27
8. Try - 3:22
9. Would You Like - 3:01
10. I Wish i Was Your Mother - 3:32
11. Pumps on a Hill - 0:50
12. Stuck in Wonderamaland - 1:05
If you know two Dramarama songs and two only, chances are they are "Anything, Anything" and "Last Cigarette." I already discussed "Anything, Anything" in the review for Cinema Verite. "Last Cigarette" is another college rock anthem. I can't deny that it's a great song. Having admitted that, I must also state that Stuck in Wonderamaland would still succeed as an album without "Last Cigarette."
The only bone I have to pick with Stuck in Wonderamaland is this: they open with a clear closer. The title track is too slow and pensive when you consider the rest of the album. They reprise it at the end of the album, and although I know they meant to bookend the album the reprise feels unnecessary. As soon as the slow and wandering title track is over, the album kicks into some high energy jangly college rock with "No Regrets." The rest of the album feels more like "No Regrets" than it does the title track. If you close with the title track and leave the album with a sort of, "I miss the innocence of childhood and the freedom I knew before life strapped me down" feeling, it makes sense and doesn't feel out of place. As an opener it left me a little bored. Opening tracks should either knock your socks off or build interest in the rest of the album. "Stuck in Wonderamaland" does neither. Aside from that single picking bone, I really enjoyed this album. It rocks in highly enjoyable ways. It's like the gritty cousin of Automatic For the People era R.E.M. I dig it. I dig it big time.
Continuing its regret-tinged look at the life of the almost-famous in L.A., Dramarama on its third album continued polishing its abilities at both straight-ahead rock and gentler affairs on Stuck in Wonderamaland. Beginning and, in a brief acoustic reprise, concluding with the title track, a wistful strum with some prime feedback burn added in the midsection, the band happily turned firmly away from the bad-glam-addled idiocies of late-'80s Sunset Strip sleaze to keep pursuing its own muse. The sly choice of a cover song, Mott the Hoople's bitter, knowing demolition of the rock dream "I Wish I Was Your Mother," betrays the emotional sucker punch prevalent throughout. With no changes outside of the departure of keyboardist Ellenis, adequately replaced here and there by Tommy T, also tackling guitar as needed, the group still kicks with a sharp energy even at its calmest moments. Easdale's signature semi-rasp if anything became even more emotive with time, while the guitar team of Wood and Mr. E Boy remained able to tackle full-on riffing to softer shades with aplomb. Carter's bass work here is some of his best, warm and flowing, while drummer Jesse similarly does the business. The great "Last Cigarette" continues the Dramarama tradition of strong lead singles, hitting and ripping with the prime energy of early New York glam/punk and even earlier rave-ups without sounding dated in the least. Then there's "70s TV," which makes the addiction to such a seeming pit of hell downright cool. When the group tries for calmer material, it does so in ways that make the then-prevalent "power ballad" trend look like the weak cheese it was. "Fireplace, Pool and Air Conditioning" hits a lovely slow burn that sounds like an updated Love if Tom Waits was the lyricist, while "Try" simply shimmers with a gorgeous acoustic/electric combination, a lovely eternal sunset.
Stuck in Wonderamaland
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