The Bicycle Thief - You Come And Go Like A Pop Song

Song For A Kevin Spacey Movie - 3
Stoned - 4
Max, Jill Called - 5
Tennis Shoes - 3
Off Street Parking - 4
L.A. Country (Hometown Blues) - 4
Hurt - 4
It's Rainin' (4am) - 4
Everyone Asks - 3
Trust Fund Girl - 3
MacArthur Park Revisited - 3
Cereal Song - 4
Boy At A Bus Stop - 4
Total - 48 stars / 13 tracks = 3.69 stars

Until this album was recommended to me, I had never heard of The Bicycle Thief. I also didn't know that it was fronted by Bob Forrest, whose band Thelonius Monster's album California Clam Chowder, I was fairly underwhelmed by. Had I known, I might have been a bit more jilted. Instead, this ended up being an entirely new experience for me, that I thoroughly enjoyed.

There isn't anything I would call a bad song on this album. I didn't love some, like "Tennis Shoes" and "Trust Fund Girl," but they're competent works that just weren't quite my cup of tea.

"Stoned" made me kind of hate myself. The line "Hey just 'cause you don't care, don't mean you're not to blame" rings incredibly true for me and all of my middle-class white guilt. It made me want to stop living in apathy and get out there and do something to make the world better. There's not much that compels me to anything, so when a piece of art is able to do so, absolute credit is due.

As great as "Stoned" was, I was more wholly grabbed by "Max, Jill Called". It has the most gripping melody, and, I think, would have been a more successful single than "Stoned".

Other songs that stood out were "Off Street Parking," which tells the story of a man dealing with the regret of ending a relationship, and "Cereal Song," wherein drug addiction is addressed in terms of its impact on daily life (like the ability to eat cereal).

This is a great album, with tons of incredible songs. As of the writing of this review, it is sitting at #13 on my 50 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.