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Oct. 16, 2000

Review - NME
November 1999

Oil Change Review
by Ivan Alexeev
Poseur Magazine, March 2002

Dear Friends, I now ask you to cast your minds back to the spring of 2000. When, try as you might, you were simply unable to escape that particularly vigilant earworm of a song called "(You All) Everybody". Have you ever found yourself wondering what ever happened to the band behind the earworm? No? Well I'm here to tell you anyway.

Evidently, in 24 short months, DriveSHAFT has gone from being the Next Big Thing to the Last Bad Thing. They seem to have fallen victim to the curse of the fickle fans. It's like the music-buying public have collectively decided to tell the band, "We're just not that into you (any more)". Clearly, the screeching background harmonies that became the trademark of the Four Mancs With The Auto Fixation had a very short shelf-life, and the expiry occurred some time between their first album and their new one.

Speaking of which, can we talk about the album title for a moment? Oil Change? Really? It might work if it was meant to be ironic, but somehow, I'm thinking no. Seriously lads, were any one of you sober during the album-naming process? Additionally, the fact that you used a photo of an actual drive shaft on the back cover further proves that the lot of you wouldn't know subtlety if it knocked you over the head with a drum of 40-weight motor oil.

All of this silliness could be overlooked if the songs were any bloody good. Sadly, they are not. The first track is the dirge-like "Vent", which contains the opening salvo, "Well I fell into a terrible lie/It seems my life was passing me by". And it's all downhill from there, kids.

Really, the only positive thing I can think to say is that the album was mercifully over in under an hour, and there were no quirky "hidden" tracks to suffer through. Sorry, boys. I think your fifteen minutes were up long ago. Best to go off and try your hands at another business. I hear they're hiring at Jiffy Lube.