The Getaway People

Well, I hope you enjoyed Early '90s Month on Thnairg's World of Music. I've decided, due to popular demand (well, okay, due to absolutely no demand, one way or another), to continue the format I had been using last month. In other words, I won't have any more "CD of the Week" or "Song of the Week" posts, but instead two posts each week (or maybe occasionally more than that) talking about a CD and also including a song upload. Enjoy...!

THE GETAWAY PEOPLE
"TURNPIKE DIARIES"
(Columbia, 2000)


"Good Life"


I've had this CD in my collection for several years, but I didn't realize until just recently that The Getaway People hailed from Norway. Now, that shouldn't really make a difference as to how much I like them, but strangely -- well, maybe not so strangely, considering my ongoing love affair with Erik Faber and Espen Lind -- it does. I was on the fence as to whether or not to put this disc into my trade-in stack in the latest (and still ongoing) thinning of my CD collection, and upon discovering their Norwegian heritage, I decided to keep it.

However, just because I mentioned Erik Faber and Espen Lind, don't assume that this is that same kind of laid-back, adult-contemporary stuff. The Getaway People lay on the funk, the drum loops and the scratching in no uncertain terms ... think of a cross between Beck and Sugar Ray. Perhaps The Getaway People's biggest claim to fame was in providing the title song to the short-lived "Dawson's Creek" spinoff, "Young Americans", in the summer of 2000. Both the original album version and the TV version of the song (whose lyrics were changed to remove a reference to cigarettes) are included on this CD.

I'd be curious to know how many of you Jesse McCartney fans will be surprised to find out that "The Good Life", included on his debut album "Beautiful Soul" as an unlisted bonus track, was originally recorded by The Getaway People four years earlier, and was even featured in an episode (and on the soundtrack album) of the Fox sitcom "Malcolm In The Middle". Not only is it a fun track, and responsible in a small way for endearing me a little more to Jesse McCartney's debut album, but it's perfectly representative of the sound of this one-of-a-kind band.