Windjammer – Sweet Relief

WINDJAMMER SWEET RELIEF, 2007

This disc is 80 minutes long.  Eighty minutes?  Why?  I don’t think Exile on Main Street is that long.  But we aren’t talking about the Stones here.  A Bill Douglass production at Royal Recording Studio seems like Windjammer had to put everything they could on one disc.  Roughly thirty minutes would have given the ears some candy to digest and maybe want some more. Hip tracks  include “Hit the Ground” and  “The Light” with a Blues Travelers vibe ( without John Popper’s harp ) ; “Juice,” live-feeling, party-fun ;  spacey  “Footprints” ending with a burst of  sumptuous guitar lead and the best track, “Drive It Right,” with Mike Bell rapping over chunky guitar foundation with an edge.  As a whole, there is nothing challenging. Tight, yes.  Stifled, yes.  Also, their website, www.wjband.com is a confusing morass of conflicting sites.  Windjammer vacation ?  “Sweet Relief” is Blues Traveler traveling to Jimmy Buffet”s beach, eating Blind Melon and spinning tunes with the Spin Doctors.
‘Nuff said.