Featuring one rock artist of sporadic greatness — Matthew Sweet — and two mildly successful where-ya-been-lately rock singer-songwriters — Pete Droge, best-known for 1994’s “If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)”, and Shawn Mullins, best-known for 1998’s “Lullaby”– the Thorns are hardly a supergroup. But neither is it a coming together of old pals; by their own admission, they hardly knew ye before signing on. An oddity, really.
Their trip, though, is easier to comprehend: three-part harmony pop born of the California sound. Think Crosby, Stills & Nash, without the pedigree, perhaps. It’s a big, glossy affair, complete with A-list producer Brendan O’Brien and A-list backing players Jim Keltner, Roy Bittan, and Greg Leisz. Yes, cash was spent.
And the entire thing leaves you thinking, huh?
Credit where it’s due: Sweet, Droge and Mullins can sing together, no doubt. Their harmonies shine like the sun greeting Seattle. But mostly, there’s little to care about. Lacking hints of each artist’s individual charms, the Thorns is a puffy, overly genteel work often mired in schmaltz. Sample chorus from “Long Sweet Summer Nights”, which bounces along like Billy Joel’s “Allentown”: “On a long sweet summer night/All the kisses you bring/Get my temperature right…I will love you in the daytime too/If it’s the only other thing that I do.” Didn’t Olivia Newton-John sing that in Grease?