Grand National: A Drink and a Quick Decision

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Clever, Grand National.   Make us wrack our brains with this album title you’ve selected.  "I need a drink and a quick decision." Now where’d that line come from?  "Let the carbon and monoxide choke my thoughts away.."  Hey, that’s Hall & Oates.  Of course!  "She’s Gone."  I see where you’re coming from now, Grand National.  You omit the "I need" in the Hall & Oates lyric and title your album with the words that remain, thereby making the understated case that we listeners need your album.  Persuasion 101.  But two questions remain:

1).  Does anyone really need A Drink and a Quick Decision?
2).   This isn’t gonna sound like Zoot Woman, is it?

Answers:  No and No.

Save for a couple pleasing exceptions – "Joker and Clown" and "By the Time I Get Home." – most of this sounds like Turin Brakes.  Either that, or present-day ponderous Electric Soft Parade.  Unappealing touchstones. Perhaps most troublesome of all, there are gruesome conga breakdowns that recall Guster.  Nice legs on the cover art, though.