Robbie Fulks: Let's Kill Saturday Night

Robbie Fulks has recorded two excellent, independently released albums (Country Love Songs and South Mouth) full of sharp, traditional country melodies and even sharper lyrics. So what the hell is the deal with Let's Kill Saturday Night, Fulks' major-label debut The singer goes for something different on this record, an admirable aim in itself, but the results have more than a little bit in common with the Nashville establishment Fulks railed against so memorably on South Mouth's "Fuck This Town." The trouble starts as early as the opening track. A highlight of Fulks' live show, "Let's Kill Saturday Night" is at heart a rousing, good-times anthem with more than a hint of desperation, a countrified "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight." Drenched in hard-rock guitars and pounding drums that all but bury Fulks' vocal, there's not much of that feeling left. The same problem plagues the next three songs, "Carolina" most of all. With cheesily rough riffs, it sounds like something from an '80s bar band, with Fulks' out-of-place voice recalling Rivers Cuomo of Weezer. "Pretty Little Poison" brings in Lucinda Williams, which would have been a welcome addition had the song been worthy of her talents. Things get more spare, more country, and, not coincidentally, better as the album progresses. But even the almost-lovely "Take Me To The Paradise" and "God Isn't Real" (Fulks' answer to the Louvin Brothers' "Satan Is Real") sound overproduced. If this were simply a debut album by anyone else, Let's Kill Saturday Night might sound more promising. But for someone who has already shown—and delivered on—great promise, it's a tremendous step backwards. Hope surfaces on some moments, such as "Night Accident," but Let's Kill Saturday Night is mostly just an independent-artist-gone-major-label worst-case scenario made real.