Sean Padilla just graduated from Baylor. He's been making recordings as the Cocker Spaniels for something like 10 years now. In the beginning, it was a band. For quite a while now, it's been just him.
And that makes this a most interesting CD. The songs take on everything from race relations (apparently some of his earlier albums were more focused on racism, but his observations here are more wry and revealing than angry and bitter) to the vagaries of boy-girl relations. I don't think it would be entirely fair to call him the black Jad Fair, but then again, the first song on this album is titled, "The Only Black Guy at the Indie Rock Show." You make the call.
Certainly, the music does share a certain idiosyncratic feel with Fair, and Padilla himself claims to take great inspiration from Guided By Voices. That and other similar influences come through loud and clear.
But what drives this album is Padilla's skill as an observational poet. I'm not usually taken by the lyrical content of an album, but there's no other way to review this album. The music is simply a medium for conducting Padilla's thoughts. It serves its purpose, and the album shines as a result. Weird--very weird at times--but well worth investigating.
---Jon Worley, August 2004