What If It Works?

What If It Works?
Studio album by The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau
Released	July 11, 2006
Recorded	2006
Genre	Rock, power pop
Length	43:37
Label	125 Records
Producer	Scott Miller and Anton Barbeau
The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau chronology
From Ritual to Romance (2002) What If It Works? (2006)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

What If It Works? is the Loud Family's seventh full-length album, a studio collaboration with Sacramento-based pop musician Anton Barbeau released in 2006.

Production history

Scott Miller was persuaded by 125 Records to record the album, which was his final work to be released before his death in 2013. Miller had considered releasing it under his own name with Barbeau; however, at the label's request, the album was credited to "The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau," to avoid confusion between Miller and a similarly named country musician.

Previous members of the Loud Family returned for the album, with drummer Jozef Becker and bass player Kenny Kessel playing on most of the tracks, and drummer Gil Ray and keyboard player Alison Faith Levy making a single appearance.

Miller and Barbeau each contributed four original songs to the album, with one co-written song. The group also covered "Rocks Off" by The Rolling Stones, "I Think I See the Light" by Cat Stevens, and "Remember You" by The Zombies.

Critical reception

The Sacramento Bee called the album "a mixture of sweet pop and jangly rock," as if "the Beatles were covered by the Replacements."^[2]

A review by Jen Grover found the Miller/Barbeau pairing to be "stylistically different yet strangely complementary," pointing to a contrast in "I Think I See the Light" between Miller's "deliciously sexy" vocals and Barbeau's comparatively "grating and nasal" vocals which nonetheless lent "gritty honesty to the arrangement."^[3] Miller's "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever," his last to be written for the album, was described as "achingly pretty and dreamingly swirly... its echoey, interlacing guitar and melancholy melody taking it into shoegaze territory."^[3]

USA Today described What If It Works? as a "terrific album... by one of underground pop-rock's best-kept secrets, the Loud Family."^[4]

Track listing

1. "Rocks Off" (Jagger/Richards) – 3:58
2. "Song About 'Rocks Off'" (Miller) – 3:11
3. "Pop Song 99" (Barbeau) – 3:03
4. "Total Mass Destruction" (Miller) – 4:13
5. "Flow Thee Water" (Barbeau) – 2:48
6. "Remember You" (Chris White) – 2:26
7. "(Kind of) In Love" (Miller/Barbeau) – 2:49
8. "Mavis of Maybelline Towers" (Miller) – 3:17
9. "I Think I See the Light" (Cat Stevens) – 4:12
10. "What If It Works?"(Barbeau) – 3:36
11. "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever" (Miller) – 5:57
12. "I've Been Craving Lately" (Barbeau) – 3:59

Personnel

• Scott Miller – vocals, guitar, some keyboards, organ, piano, bass guitar, Waldorf MicroWave
• Anton Barbeau – vocals, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, farfisa, some drums, acoustic piano, Microkorg, bass guitar, Micromoog, tambourine, shaker, Korg MS-10/Roland Space Echo, Arp Odyssey, acoustic and anti-acoustic piano, Navation X-Station
• Kenny Kessel – bass guitar
• Jozef Becker – drums
• Kristine Chambers – backing vocals on "Total Mass Destruction"
• Steve Randall – electric guitar on "Flow Thee Water"
• Dave Middleton – electric guitar on "Flow Thee Water"
• Julie Meyes – farfisa on "Flow Thee Water"
• Alison Faith Levy – piano and backing vocals on "I Think I See The Light"
• Gil Ray – percussion on "I Think I See The Light"
• Larry Tagg – bass guitar on "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever" and "I've Been Craving Lately"

References