The Pietasters - All Day Review
by Kevin Wierzbicki
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The Pietasters line-up features a three-man horn section appending a basic quintet and that combination affords a versatility that not many bands can pull off. The large outfit works primarily in two genres, ska and soulful pop, but within those two categories the band demonstrates lots of differences in style. The opening three songs all deal with woman trouble, starting off with a jaunty bit of Motown-style pop in the self-explanatory "Change My Ways." Then the band flips the ska switch with "Don't Wanna Know," a tune where the fellow who's wishing for ignorance has already confirmed his lady's infidelity and is trying not to go postal. "Late Night Call" possibly features the same fellow---this time he's drunk-dialing and apologetic but his real objective is to score some booty. The song is done in a reggae style that borrows very heavily from Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" and stands up as one of the best tracks on All Day. That booty call thing must not have worked out because "Dream of You" finds our love-struck hero tracking down the new girl to a reggae beat and slinky organ fills from Jorge Pezzimenti. The soulful pop/ska/reggae rotation continues with the brassy 2 Tone-style ska of "Anj Gil," the Booker T-ish "Fozzy (Part 1)" and a slowed down, reggae-fied version of Tom Petty's "Listen to Her Heart." When the band departs from the formula for one song they go way in the opposite direction with a garage-rocker called "So Long." The diversity of this album seems at first to work against the group but repeated listens reveal a cohesiveness that comes mostly thanks to the work of lead singer Stephen Jackson.
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The Pietasters - All Day
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