When the first Winery Dogs album came out, it was a breath of fresh air. With it, we had one of the rare 'supergroup' albums that lived up to the billing, because Richie Kotzen was able to ground the songs with so many catchy melodies it appealed to both people who love immediately gratifying music as well as technically impressive feats of musicianship. Often, the most advanced musicians get bogged down in their own abilities, and the songwriting can't match up to their talents. The Winery Dogs were different, and that first album was everything I could have wanted from a modern rock record.
The second album was not quite so successful. The same thing happened to them as did Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan's other project, Sons Of Apollo, where the two of them became more of a focus, and the heavier rhythmic elements sapped out some of what made the band so appealing to me in the first place. There were still gems, but the record as a whole felt like a step in the wrong direction.
As you can tell from the ever-so-creative title of "III", the band is back together. Album opener, and first single "Xanadu", tries to split the difference between the two records. It reaches for the big choruses of the debut, but is built from verses focused on the rhythm section. It isn't as immediate as "Elevate" was to introduce the band to the world, but this one does grow on me the more I hear it.
One of the interesting things the years between the albums has developed is the band's three-part harmonies, which sound sweeter than ever on this record. Being a three-piece band, the vocal layering is a key element to making the choruses jump out and fill the space where other bands might have added another two or three layers of guitars. That lets the production sound open and live, while playing with the depth to keep things from being too obvious. Portnoy and Sheehan do have a background in prog, after all.
As the record unfolds, the band is comfortable being who they are, and not trying to break new ground. This project was always about getting together and having fun playing song-oriented rock, and that's precisely what they are doing here. The sound is unmistakably Winery Dogs, but perhaps they are more restrained here than usual. There aren't as many big guitar flourishes, nor does the record drive with quite as much crunch and heaviness. It's a restrained record that is assured in what it has to offer, even if that means it perhaps doesn't have quite the same spark.
That is most evident when the record is over, and I start to consider what I've just heard. It's an hour of music that is most enjoyable, but there aren't as many songs that jump out as true highlights the way that most of the first record did, or "The Lamb" did on the second. This is much more of an album experience, which is not a sleight by any means. It simply means this is a different sort of listen.
Also, Richie gets a bit weird with his lyrics on this one. There's a mention of breaking his balls, and then on "The Pharaoh" he sings, "like a pimp, I've got game." Is he really romanticizing the abusive lifestyle of a pimp? It might be a good thing some of his delivery is hard to decipher, because that line alone made me cringe as soon as I heard it.
The band's first album is nearly perfect, and remains their high water mark. The question is where this album sits in comparison to "Hot Streak". That will depend on which experience you prefer; the one with more consistency, or the one with higher high points. "III" rarely puts a step wrong, but its cautious approach could be taken the wrong way, I would think.
Regardless, it's nice to have The Winery Dogs back, and they have acquitted themselves nicely with this record.
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