Shoulda-been breakthrough LP of power pop legends
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 12/28/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Berkeley, California based Rubinoos' second album should have propelled them to stardom. Having cracked the charts two years earlier with a cover of Tommy James' "I Think We're Alone Now," the band's second album offered up the brilliant original, "I Wanna Be Your Boyrfriend." Jon Rubin's tenor vocals had always been the perfect lead for Tommy Dunbar's bright, radio pop, but with "Boyfriend," they fused a killer chorus hook and an irresistible lyric of adolescent love into a truly memorable performance. Sadly, just as the single was starting to move their record distributor went belly-up and the momentum evaporated. In addition to the landmark single, "Drawing Board" offers up several of the band's best songs, including the pop-soul "Fall in Love," a show-stopping cover of the 1930s standard "Hold Me" that borrows its rock 'n' roll beat-era styling from P.J. Proby, the summertime harmonies of "Driving Music" (the best Raspberries song not written or recorded by the Raspberries), and the hyperkinetic ode to pinball-love, "Arcade Queen." Every song is filled with guitars and multipart harmonies.
Air Mail Recordings (the band's current Japanese label) has reissued "Drawing Board" in a cardboard mini-sleeve that reproduces the original album art (front and back) and includes a miniature yellow Beserkley inner sleeve. In addition to the original eleven tracks, four bonuses include a brilliant, Spectoresque cover of the Paley Brothers' "Rendezvous" that nicks the opening riff of the Beach Boys' "Girl Don't Tell Me," two more originals (the harmony-thick "Warm Summer Night" and the island-tinged "Red Light Green Light") and a cover of Link Wray's instrumental, "Rumble." "Rendezvous" appeared on the band's recent box set ("Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Rubinoos") along with the entirety of the "Drawing Board" album, but the latter three bonuses can only be found here. The box set is the place to start your Rubinoos collection, but when you need to snap up every last track that's been issued, you'll want to get a copy of this limited edition reissue. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]"
