Review: Speed the Plough – Now

Speed the Plough
Now

Coyote Records
Street: 12.11.15
Speed the Plough = Fleetwood Mac + Jefferson Airplane

Now is what happens when that band that was pretty good in college gets back together. Speed the Plough have been around since 1984, and if you go on their website you can listen to some of the stuff from their 1991 album Wonder Wheel. That material is actually quite good ’80s alternative pop rock, but somewhere along the ensuing 24 years they, like most musicians, lost it. Where their old material has a nice groove and melody, this record plays like a mediocre high school rock band making their first album. Their lyrics are sophomoric, the instrumentals are derivative, and the vocal melodies are clunky and out of place. This kind of thing is pretty fun for the musicians, but the pleasure doesn’t really extend beyond that. Skim Now, but go check out their old stuff from the ’80s and early ’90s. It’s pretty good. –Alex Gilvarry