The Mighty Rime - S/T - Caulfield Records

Review by: Chris Boehk

The Mighty Rime is Kerry McDonald of Christie Front Drive fame. The Mighty Rime sounds like Christie Front Drive to some degree. It's got melodic parts and it's somewhat catchy at times, but that's about it. The Mighty Rime is more organic, roots oriented lo-fi pop rock. I really liked Christie Front Drive when they were around. I like the Mighty Rime too.

Although a "solo" record, the Mighty Rime is not quite what one might imagine. Usually, solo records are some dude that has an acoustic guitar and he's just sitting there, belting out songs about this or that. This record is much better. This record sounds more like a full band. Other than a couple of tracks, which sound like the aforementioned scenario, the rest of the tracks are typical rock songs - electric guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. I guess you might put it in the same realm as Dinosaur Jr. except not as loud or fast, and these songs have a little bit more math in them at times.

My favorite part of this recording is the overall sound of it. It's really got a good unpolished sound. The drums sound fantastic. It just sounds like they set up the drums in a room with a single room mic and went with it. The guitar sounds really good, too. Very Tom Petty or Neil Young or something American like that.

The only thing I really don't like about the Mighty Rime are the vocals. They seem too high pitched and whiny for this type of music. I know a person's voice is there voice and it's hard to change it, but these songs might sound better with deeper, throatier vocals, rather than the adolescent vocals of Kerry.

But despite my dislike of the vocals, the rest of the Mighty Rime is really good. Good song structures and good sounding recording. Check it out if you dig this kind of stuff.