People either love Cracker or find David Lowery’s post-Camper Van
Beethoven outfit wearily obtuse and trying-too-hard ironic. Sunrise
in the Land of Milk and Honey does have its share of obtuseness
— not everyone writes linear love ditties, although just in case
you thought they couldn’t do it, “Darling One” is exactly that. The
hilarious “Friends” isn’t just alt-country, it’s mentally altered,
dead-drunk country. Everywhere else, Sunrise is as
straight-ahead a rocker as Cracker can lay on us, much of it catchy as
hell. “Yalla Yalla” is a wicked, unapologetic run through the war,
while “We All Shine a Light” hangs by the unlikely thread of Pakistani
cricket (the game, not the insect). Oddballs like “Show Me How This
Thing Works,” about an object that drops from outer space, have the
usual caustic Cracker sense, and mid-tempo rocker “Turn On, Tune In,
Drop Out With Me” contains the album’s most unlikely line: “I’m
shopping in town for our homemade agrarian forest, you’re texting
Corian, granite or tile kitchenette in the gun nest?” Huh? If you don’t
pay too close attention to the lyrics — the lyric sheet is
mandatory otherwise — Sunrise in the Land of Milk and
Honey is simply an extremely listenable rock album.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.