While
Birdbrain was a marked improvement over
Buffalo Tom's self-titled debut album,
Let Me Come Over was truly the great leap forward for the band, sounding richer, more imaginative, and more emotionally powerful than anything they'd attempted in the past. Guitarist
Bill Janovitz, bassist
Chris Colbourn, and drummer
Tom Maginnis individually displayed a greater command of their respective instruments, and collectively their interplay was certainly more confident and intricate, having traded in the muddy clamor of their first recordings for a more layered sound (complete with overdubbed acoustic guitars) that was clean, vibrant, and compelling. (Producers
Paul Kolderie and
Sean Slade certainly helped, bringing a clearer and better focused sound to these sessions than
J Mascis drew from the band.) And while
Buffalo Tom was shouting less on
Let Me Come Over, they seemed to have a lot more to say; there's a heart and soul to the lovelorn
"Taillights Fade" and the yearning
"Velvet Roof" that digs a good bit deeper than their previous work (and is also a lot easier to sort through), while even hard rockers such as
"Stymied" and
"Saving Grace" reflect a new maturity and seriousness of purpose. In fact, if
Let Me Come Over has a flaw, it's that
Buffalo Tom seems to display a bit less joie de vivre than one might have expected, though after gaining this much in the way of both skills and smarts, you can't blame them for wanting to show them off a bit. ~ Mark Deming
