It takes a certain kind of music fan to appreciate Trans Am. If you listen to their records without at least a remedial knowledge of the last thirty years of pop history, with a minor in the butt-rock and the electro-pop of the 70s and 80s, you're only getting half the story. Each of Trans Am's previous records struck me as an enthusiastic homage to overlooked and underrepresented genres. It's hard to believe now, but at the time of their 1996 debut, few Americans were talking about Kraftwerk and krautrock, and none of these people were into metal. Having songs that drew from both these worlds on the same record seemed almost revolutionary. Trans Am continued to refine their craft on Surrender to the Night, The Surveillance, and Futureworld, culminating with what I think is their finest album, the comparatively serious and varied Red Line.

But that's all behind us now. In 2002, with their new album TA, Trans Am makes no sense, no matter what music history text you've been reading. Ditching the more experimental direction of Red Line, Trans Am sound as though they aspire to be nothing more than a second-rate novelty act. It's an old-school album in terms of sequencing-- fourteen songs in 45 minutes-- but it feels long. Very long.

The successful stabs at straight vocal tracks on Red Line apparently encouraged the band to include a half-dozen such songs here, and most of these are nothing more than tuneless 80s rock with booming drums and half-hearted Michael Sembello synth treatments. It's Loverboy-style lite-metal meets new wave, without the riffs, melodies or red leather pants. In other words, it's Survivor.

When they're not trying to rewrite "High on You," Trans Am revisit territory they've covered exhaustively elsewhere. "Party Station" and "Infinite Wavelength" are vocodered pop numbers that might have fit on Futureworld, but back then they'd have had the courtesy to give us some kind of hook. "Positive People" is a neutered version of "Play in the Summer," lacking any of that song's crucial Zep crunch and driving rhythm. "Afternight" manages to rise to the level of adequacy, being a relatively evocative rock instrumental close in tone to Surrender to the Night. But the only truly arresting moment on TA comes as the tweaked Moog instrumental "Bonn" gives way to the electro of "Basta," a tune with aggressive Spanish rapping and a coda of inspired military drumming.

I'm not sure exactly what's happened here-- has Trans Am changed or have I? TA is, by some margin, the band's worst record. There's no doubting that. Where before their records struck me as an affectionate celebration of goofy music, on TA Trans Am feels smarmy, arrogant, and oh-so-ironic. Who's got time for that?

-Mark Richard-San, May 1st, 2002