I had about 3/4 of a good review typed up on Thursday that I lost after leaving the tab and other terrible excuses from the album club on mb edition 23.
Anyways, I'm not going to do an in depth review like I had planned. I voted that I liked the record. It had some prime musicianship that had jams that were easy to bop along to, touching on progressive and psychedelic tenets, like the Belew-era King Crimson influence on the guitars in the beginning. Most of the songs were approachable yet interesting, and the less compelling elements of the album aren't enough to weigh the whole thing down. I thought that the synth presets (I presume) were just too cheesy for their own good despite whatever interesting melodies the keyboardist was playing. The dub element brought the album down as well, as it just made the tracks that it's prevalent on super dull. With that being said, the drums were generally interesting and the guitar solos themselves were cool even if they occasionally had the arena rock tone that I hate. Even without their notoriety as a live band, I can tell that these guys would be a primo live experience though. A lot of the time it feels like psychedelic bands never reach their full form in the studio but rather when they're up front delivering the music and you can see their passion. So while I credit these guys for being talented and passionate about what they do (which I thought was clear by how the eclectic nature of this album didn't feel forced or unnecessary), this album only gets up to a 6.5/10 for me.
__________________
Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.
|