A jam band beloved from Berkeley to Boulder to Asheville despite their rather naff name -- which sounds like the name a writer from The Simpsons would give a hippie-ish, Americana-infused jam band for satiric purposes -- Jupiter Coyote have distilled their sound to a certain kind of perfection on Hillary Step. Unfortunately, perfection is not necessarily a virtue in the world of jam bands, a genre where spontaneity is prized above all else. There are very few spontaneous moments on their eighth album, just one three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half-minute mid-tempo pop song with occasional bluegrass and country touches after another. There are no extended improvisatory segments -- even the nearly eight-minute closer, the lovely and mostly acoustic "Fade," never really cuts loose -- and the self-produced album has all the gloss of Hootie & the Blowfish (unsurprisingly, Darius Rucker makes a guest vocal appearance) and none of the excitement that a truly great jam band is supposed to generate. The admittedly catchy "Falling" is tailor-made for AAA radio stations in vegetarian coffeehouses throughout the college towns of the land, but settling for being the Spin Doctors when you have it in you to be a southern-fried Phish is just sad.
Jupiter Coyote
The Hillary Step
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AllMusic Review by Stewart Mason
Track Listing - Disc 1
Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 04:33 | Amazon | |||
2 | Jupiter Coyote | 04:30 | Amazon | ||||
3 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 03:34 | Amazon | |||
4 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 05:09 | Amazon | |||
5 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 05:39 | Amazon | |||
6 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 05:24 | Amazon | |||
7 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 03:51 | Amazon | |||
8 |
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Jupiter Coyote | 04:58 | Amazon | |||
9 |
|
Jupiter Coyote | 07:43 | Amazon |
Track Listing - Disc 2
Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
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1 |
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Jupiter Coyote |