Texas Is The Reason

Do You Know Who You Are? is one of the best selling albums that Revelation ever released, and Texas Is The Reason flirted with major label courtship (almost signing to Capitol before splitting up instead) on the strength of their what would ultimately prove to be this their sole album; I remember two things about the band when they were active: one, everyone seemed to love Texas Is The Reason and Do You Know Who You Are?, and two, I could not for the life of me figure out just what the hype was all about in the first place.

While the passage of time and some exposure to a plethora of music has given me a great deal of perspective, I now see some great qualities that are imbued in Do You Know Who You Are?; the members of Texas Is The Reason have an excellent sense of dynamic songwriting (I do love the quiet break in “Johnny On The Spot” and the transitions in and out of the part and the build up in the beginning of “There’s No Way I Can Talk Myself Out Of This One Tonight” is aces and just the whole of “Back and To The Left” makes me understand why the song is one of the classics from this album), and the background vocals actually add a great deal to the songs where they are used (the ones in “There’s No Way I Can Talk Myself Out Of This One Tonight” make it one of my favorite songs on the album) while the lead vocals by Garret Klahn are nowhere near the turnoff that they used to be for this band (this is saying something from me and his performance in “A Day’s Refrain” is completely excellent).

I still think that Do You Know Who You Are? is rather overrated, but I definitely think that the music that Texas Is The Reason play on this album is a smooth batch of songs with a strong grasp of writing and composition behind them; ultimately Do You Know Who You Are? is a solid album with some real excellent songs, and I can kind of see why people love Texas Is The Reason and this album so much and also understand why major labels were fawning all over these guys as the potential for something truly great was there.

7.5 / 10 — Bob