So, I’ve been pretty sick the past few days. Right now, I pity any of my classmates, as they are currently being subjected to all manner of sniffling, snorting and airborne germs.
As a kid, I was sick a lot of the time (in second grade, I actually got bumped down to a lower reading level because I missed three weeks of school), but these days, getting sick is kind of weird. I’m usually not ready for it, and when I began to feel that telltale tickling in the back of my throat last Friday, I knew that I’d be in for a week or so of misery.
I figured that the best cure for what ailed me would be some good music. So, before the depths of melancholy fully engulfed me, I went out and got the new album by Cracker, “Forever.”
You’ve heard Cracker before, but you probably don’t know it. Consisting of singer/guitarist David Lowery, lead guitarist Johnny Hickman and an ever-changing rhythm section, Cracker has made it their business to write solid rock songs (à la Tom Petty) with an occasionally humorous, sarcastic bent. They had a really big hit back in 1993 called “Low.” It was that song that went “I’ll be with you, girl / Like being low / Hey, hey, hey / Like being stone.”
Since topping the charts way back when, Cracker has kept a pretty low profile. They released two more albums (1996’s “The Golden Age” and “Gentlemen’s Blues” in 1998, both worth buying) but couldn’t repeat the runaway success of “Low.”
“Forever” isn’t going to bring Cracker back to the mainstream, because right now the music industry is preoccupied with cotton-candy superstars and whiny metalheads who didn’t get along with their dads. That’s too bad, because “Forever” is one of those albums that is so good that it frightens me a little.

After using all of my strength to purchase “Forever,” I went home and collapsed into my bed with the album playing. Listening intently as I went through a box of Kleenex, I must admit that at first I was a bit surprised and somewhat unimpressed. Previous Cracker albums had been heavy on a bluesy, Southern rock ‘n’ roll feel. The opening song on “Forever,” “Brides of Neptune,” begins with some eerie keyboards and what sounds like a gospel choir singing underwater. Then Lowery starts singing about dating mermaids and being guarded by monkeys. What’s going on here?
The answer is that throughout “Forever,” Cracker has broadened their sound to a wonderful effect. Sleigh bells and gospel singing permeate the bittersweet “Merry Christmas, Emily,” while “Ms. Santa Cruz County” and “Shameless” apply a funk sensibility that on paper should be awful, but somehow they manage to pull it off. The addition of Kenny Margolis on keyboards has had a marked effect on these guys — nearly every song features thick glaciers of an organ or the haunted-house vibe of a well-placed Mellotron.
The shining jewel on “Forever” is undoubtedly “Sweet Magdalena of My Misfortune,” which could very well be the best song that Cracker has ever produced. Whenever Lowery sings “So many words / I never found / to make you stay / for just one more day,” I just can’t help but get a lump in my throat.
So, as I laid low this weekend, doing homework as my body battled a myriad of invaders, I had an excellent soundtrack to my woe. “Forever” is not only Cracker’s best work to date, but it’s also the best album that I have heard so far in 2002. Buy it and make the world safe again for solid rock ‘n’ roll with a beating heart.