Album: It Had to do With Love Release Date: 11/5/2000 Length: 40:47 Label: Vagrant Records Rating: 6.3 |
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| Track Listing | |
1. Out of Your Element (4:08)  |
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| 2. Move Out, Move On (3:05) | |
| 3. Minor Chords (3:59) | |
4. It Had to do With Love (4:37)  |
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| 5. Out of Your Element (Reprise) (2:00) |
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| 6. Going to Happen (4:12) |
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| 7. Offering Advice (4:01) | |
| 8. Living Alone (3:54) | |
| 9. Work Will Never End (4:10) | |
| 10. Over It (6:18) | |
| Review | |
| It’s one thing to embrace a unique sound, but Vagrant Records may be going overboard with the synth rock bands. First we had The Get Up Kids tickling the occasional ivory on their records for the big indie label. Next came a band comprised of a few of the "kids," Reggie & The Full Effect, also doing the keyboard thing. Next in line with keyboard duties would be the unique pop rock band, The Anniversary. Each of these bands brought something new to the emo/punk scene with their use of keyboards. Koufax should not be lumped with the previously mentioned bands. Koufax takes everything you loved, or hated, about 80s synth pop and painstakingly recreates it. | |
| The piano is the focal point of most of the band's songs on the disc, and this reliance on a very underused instrument actually proves very refreshing. That’s not to say there are no guitars, but merely that the guitars are more rhythm than anything else. The drumming is also serviceable. Again, it’s nothing to get excited about, but there has been worse drumming on rock records. | |
| That is the funny thing about It Had To Do With Love though. It is terribly hard to categorize into a genre. Koufax will always be lumped in with the "Rock" or "Alternative" sections at your local record store, but they’re anything but. | |
| The lyrics, as the album title suggests, deal mainly with ideas of relationships and love in a very relaxed tone. The voice of lead singer Robert Suchan isn’t particularly one I’ve enjoyed listening to, but it’s not annoying in a grating way. It is, more or less, just plain uninteresting. The lyrics are all sung in a thick nasal tone, and it works most of the time, just not to excellent effect. | |
| My problems with Koufax mostly have to do with their energy level. It should be noted that I’ve seen the band live before, so my opinion is more than a bit biased. Koufax was a lot of fun live. They have an excellent stage presence, are extremely energetic, and seem like all-around fun guys. The problem is that none of these traits are evident on this disc. The band merely breezes through ten love songs in short order, getting through them without much attempt to convince the listener to actually care much about the music they’re listening to. | |
| The sound just doesn’t seem to carry over well when not in a loud, sweaty, live atmosphere. Whether this is the fault of the band or the producer of the record, I’m not certain, but if Koufax wishes to gain a larger audience and to keep the audience they’re getting from their shows, they’ve got to put together a livelier record than the one I’m listening to right now. | |
| That is basically all that is really wrong with It Had To Do With Love. It’s not bad per se, its just not very good. Some of it is inspired, but you will probably have heard most of it in some form or another many years ago as a younger child. Until Koufax ups the ante, there’s not truly a reason to revisit the 80's just yet. | |
| Rating: 6.3 | |
| - Dan Kricke |
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