From the Cutout Bin: Seven Mary Three - Orange Ave.

Welcome to From the Cutout Bin, where we dig up old CDs that have been forgotten for whatever reason and can now be found in the dollar (or quarter) bin at your local used CD store (if your community still has a used CD store). This installment features the final major-label album by Seven Mary Three, 1998's Orange Ave.

Of all the albums we've done for this feature so far, this one was one of the more successful ones: it charted at #121 in the summer of 1998, and the lead single, "Over Your Shoulder," was a Top 10 mainstream rock and a Top 20 modern rock hit. So why did I get a copy (admittedly, a radio promo copy without any liner notes or artwork, but still) for $1? Because 7M3's first major-label album, 1995's American Standard, went platinum, and their follow-up, Rock Crown, failed to go gold. So expectations were low for Orange Ave., which came out a scant 14 months after Rock Crown.

I probably should note that I don't own any of 7M3's other albums, and haven't heard them all the way through. I am familiar with the hit singles: "Cumbersome," "Water's Edge," "My My," "Lucky," etc. I've seen the band once, at a radio station festival in the fall of 1998. And I was in a band in high school that ripped off the riff from "Water's Edge" for one of our songs. So there are my Seven Mary Three credentials up front.

This album seems like a conscious decision to get away from the "post-grunge" label that 7M3 were saddled with after their first two albums. And unlike bands like Better than Ezra, who released albums in 1998 that dabbled in electronica and trip-hop, Orange Ave.went in a '70s outlaw country / roots-rock direction. This is the sound of a band that were really into Pearl Jam, but used that as a gateway to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and Skynyrd.

This album is pretty good. It sounds like a southern-rock Wallflowers album, and that's not a backhanded compliment. "Over Your Shoulder" is a great song. No, really: listen for yourself:

That's a live version from 2009; the band didn't make any music videos off this album, which probably reflects Atlantic's continued interest in them.

Things were not going well for the band by the time Orange Ave. came out. From 7M3's own webpage, here's lead singer Jason Ross on the album: "The record is disjointed. The fragile moments and the energetic ones never reached continuity, largely because some of us weren’t speaking to each other at the time. It is our only attempt at making a straightforward pop rock record. There are songs on it that deserved a better effort than we could give at the time amidst the upheaval of knowing something bad was about to happen. I wanted to pay respects to my hometown of Orlando, a much-maligned hub of disposable entertainment and excess. Touring in support of Orange Avenue was work. And it was sad. It never felt like work before, but the damage was done." Lead guitarist Jason Pollock quit the band after this album.

From trolling the web, it seems as if this album is a bit of a black-sheep in the 7M3 catalog for the band's fans, but I rather enjoyed it. Besides "Over Your Shoulder," I also particularly liked "In-Between" and "Southwestern State."

7 Mary 3 are still going, and have managed to maintain a cult following. They've released three studio albums on various indie labels since Orange Ave. and opened up for Three Doors Down in 2004 on a lengthy amphitheater tour. Only lead singer Jason Ross and the bass player are still around from the original incarnation of the band, but they have a new acoustic album out, and they're playing Alaska later this month. Visit their webpage here.

Is Orange Ave. worth your dollar? I'd say yes.