MTV was showing the latest episodes of Beavis and Butthead, and live footage of the mudslides at the 1994 Woodstock festival.
In the middle of this was a video with a guy in a ski cap, singing a song called “Two Princes.” Meanwhile the radio waves carried another song by the same group, singing, “Little miss, little miss, little miss can’t be wrong...”
The Spin Doctors, after a long hiatus, recently put out a new album, entitled “Nice Talking to Me,” which recaptures the same sound that the made the Spin Doctors famous in the first place, but contains a few subtle overtones of maturity, an unexpected change away from the band that toured with the Rolling Stones in 1994.
The band originally called it quits in 1999, after releasing “Here Comes the Bride”, when singer Chris Barron suffered a vocal cord paralysis that severely affected his ability to talk, let alone sing. Since then each member of the Spin Doctors has gone off to work with other musicians, whether through teaching or producing. The band was invited in 2001 to a reunion gig, and despite a tumultuous career history, reconnected through the music. They spent the next three years rediscovering songwriting, live performance, and the creative process that made them famous in the first place.
Many of the songs on “Nice Talking to Me” resemble the Spin Doctors’ original work, with songs like “My Problem Now” and “Margarita” bringing on a sense of expectation that the next song on the CD will be “Two Princes.” However, songs like “I’d Like to Love You” and “Genuine” break away from the nostalgia, and present a sound fresh to old fans, and invigorating to new ones.
Lyrically, the maturity of Chris Barron’s songwriting shines in songs like “Happily Ever After,” singing, “This old world is a merry go round / with painted horses going up and down / oceans of tears, gales of laughter / once in a while someone lives happily ever after.”
Barron’s words reflect the ups and downs of the Spin Doctor’s past career, although if albums like “Nice Talking to Me” are an indication of things to come, the band’s future is looking good.
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