Ultimate Painting - Green Lanes download free

I was re-reading my review of Ultimate Painting’s first release, and while no one wants an artist to be a one trick pony, I will say that the difference between the two albums is like night and day ... perhaps too much so.My biggest concern is not with the record, but with other reviewers and music rags who don’t seem to want to offend anyone, and say things such as, “The Groups follow-up, Green Lanes, sounds even more casual” ... when the subtext reads that the album is less richly layered and complex. Others avoid saying anything by saying, “It’s mellower and more subdued, with the songs ticking along at medium tempo or slower” ... when again, the subtext would be that the songs are less interesting, less inspired, and spartan without the deep contemplation.Green Lanes is not a bad album, it’s just miles from what I expected, with the distinction of who wrote which songs astoundingly evident, indicating that within a mere two releases the dynamics of this duo are at a point where they seem not to be working collectively, or even reshaping each others material so that it sounds like a collective effort. Instead, Green Lanes comes off not dysfunctionally, but certainly as individual efforts cobbled together. Gone is the psychedelic lo-fi fuzzed out intonation of their debut, gone is the seeming effortlessness, replaced with affected guitars and passages of verse that come off as free-style meaningless meanderings. The opening two tracks “Kodiak” and “Sweet Chris” have been injected with an uncomfortable cutting series of guitar notes that poke at the listener for no good reason, getting the album off to a rather rough start for this listener. It’s not until the most sensational song on the album “(I’ve Got The) Sanctioned Blues,” a number that defies ownership, and was exactly what I was hoping for with this release, that the band steps into the light. While good, their other efforts come off rather run of the mill, leaving the tracks “Two From The Vault,” “Out Cold” and “The Ocean (Reprise)” to dance in your head, while the others float off into the ether.Green Lanes is less about an atmosphere of drugs and sex, and more about two people having forgotten what they once mustered, where they once took us, and delivering cutting room samples, and not a finished product that sounds polished and rewarding.Review by Jenell Kesler