Alles Weideroffen by Einsturzende Neubauten

Well this one wasn't heavily promoted. I didn't realize it existed until I saw it in a CD store. Compared to 2004's magnificent Perpetuum Mobile, this feels like a minor work to me. I'm sure that there are a lot of fans of Einsturzende Neubauten that feel differently. This album funded entirely by the Einsturzende Neubauten fan club, and more importantly the entire recording process was available for fans of the band to witness and comment on. I've read in a couple of reviews about how the band would revisit previously discarded musical paths and discard others based on comments from their fans. I've never heard of a band allowing their fans to contribute so much to the creative process, so I certainly admire it. Unfortunately, the result is an album that just does not come accross as strongly as Einsturzende Neubauten's previous works. While there are no bad songs, there is little on this album to give it the strength of other efforts from this group.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of impressive tracks on here. Opening song "Die Wellen" starts with quiet piano and percussion and then slowly increases in volume until the end. There's no explosion of sound or cathariss. Just one crescendo for a little over three and a half minutes. It works. Not particularly well, but it works. "Weil Weil Weil" and "Lets do it Dada" show off their ability to deliver catchy almost dancable grooves. Both of these songs would be candidates for singles if this band did singles. Einsturzende Neubauten has never been a dance band, and that seems kind of tragic to me with all their rythmic capabilities. When they turn down the volume, the results are a bit more hit and miss. "Nagorny Karabach" is about as unmemorable a track as they have ever written. But "Ichhatteein Wort" is about as pretty as songs come these days.

My biggest moment of disappointment comes at the end of this album. "Ich Warte" was featured on a recent live album the band released, and live, the song is extremely powerful. It starts with a quiet melody and then when the percussion joins in and Blixa Bargeld sings with the full power of voice, the song really carries a lot of energy. But on this album, the song feels almost lifeless. The climax just doesn't have any punch to it. And the song hasn't been substantially altered. I can't figure out what's wrong. Was Blixa feeling sick that day they decided to record? Could they just not figure out how it should sound? I just don't get it.

I can't help but wonder what "Von Wegen" would have been if Einsturzende Neubauten's fans had been left out of the creative process. The song starts quietly enough before building to an orchestral climax. But there's this part in the middle where Blixa sings "Von Wegen" over and over that doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the song. It sounds like something the band decided didn't fit, but fans decided sounded cool and as a result got left in. It does sound cool, but it also just doesn't belong. Then again, I could be completely wrong.

I bought this album when it came out in January. I really haven't listened to it much since then. Listening to it again for this review, that seems like kind of a shame. There's lots of good music on here. But I guess something about it leaves me cold. I admire Einsturzende Neubauten for their tireless experimentation and committment to expanding their creative process. Unfortunately, I just can't get too worked up about the results.

Well shit. According to Allmusic.com, this album came out last October. Well I've come too far not to post this.

The Airing of Greivances by Titus Andronicus is the best album of the year

I started this one a while ago, but for whatever reason I couldn't finish it. I've bought my last new CD of the year (The Orchard by Fire on Fire), and I can say with supreme confidence that no album this year has excited me more than this one. I fell in love with this band within the first ten minutes of hearing them live for the first time. Live, they can be a chaotic sloppy experience, but on this album, they actually manage to reign things in just enough to deliver one of the most effective and compelling rock albums I've heard in a while.

Opening song "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah NJ" basically seals the deal by itself. Opening with Patrick Sickles alone on guitar and vocals sounding as if he has a long hallway between himself and the microphone, the song kicks into gear with a rousing cry of "Fuck you!" and blasts off with about a minute and a half of furious rock music with the second half of the lyrics sung with the full band behind him. Then the music falls back to allow a guitar riff to rive above the wreckage. Eventually the rest of the band joins in again to the end, and they sprint to the end of the song. The only thing I don't like about this track is the barely intelligible spoken word bit at the end, but every other moment is flawless.

And the album is full of similarly great songs. "Joset of Nazareth Blues" sounds like it should be a Mekons song (highest compliment I can give a rock song), Parts 1 and 2 of "No Future" are both spectacular as well. Part 1 is especially interesting, because it's probably the slowest and quietest song on the album. Sure it features plenty of loud guitars like the rest of the tracks, but as fun as that is, the quieter beginning is done so well that I never get impatient for the song to kick into high gear.

Songs like "Arms Against Atrophy" suffer only by comparison to the numerous great rock songs on this album. And that's really the one drag of listening to The Airing of Grievances, the songs I love stand out so strongly from the rest, that 3 of the 9 songs almost feel like filler. But all in all, this is the most exhilarating and exciting rock album I've heard in a long time. Exhilarating because...well duh, I just told you. Exciting because ....well there is also the obvious for this one. But there's also the fact that this album shows so much promise. Titus Andronicus could become any sort of rock band they wanted judging from this album. They could be the rowdy sloppy rock band that I first thought they were. They could be a loud guitar-rock band. Shoe-gaze, punk, country or whatever else they wanted. This album shows promise in so many ways.

But so much of this album is about being young, angry and disillusioned that I wonder if these guys can keep it up as they grow up. If the next 4 Titus Andronicus albums are like this, it'll get really old really fast. But there are 6 of them. Maybe someone else will pitch in on song writing duties. Or maybe Patrick Sickles will continue to amaze us. Whatever it is, I'll want to stick around at least for the sequel.

Tuesday December 17, 2008, Brooklyn Masonic Temple: Walkmen and The Dodos

And it's another pictureless review. Pictures should be back in time for my review of the Akron/Family New Years Eve Spectacular. So for this one, you'll have to find pictures somewhere else.

First, the venue: The show was held at The Brooklyn Masonic Temple which seems like somewhat of an unlikely place for a show. Once inside, it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch. Sure, it's not a regular concert venue, but it looks like it's used as a community/recreation center, so concerts for the Brooklyn hipster community make sense. It's also conveniently located 4 blocks from my apartment. Unfortunately, this didn't mean that I was home shortly after the concert was over. I made the mistake of checking my coat, and despite leaving during the last song to beat the crowds, I was stuck in line for nearly an hour waiting for my coat. So that sucked.

I also missed the first song of The Dodos' set because it took longer than expected to check my coat. Point is, don't check your coat there. But at least I only missed one song of The Dodos set, and I was lucky that it wasn't one of my favorites ("Red and Purple"). The Dodos put on a strong high energy show. The band is a three piece of guitar/vocals, drums/vocals and added percussion/viberaphone (I think). So just by virtue of their interesting instrumentation, The Dodos have an interesting sound.

I already reviewed their album earlier this week, and while I liked it, I wasn't able to form a very strong opinion of it. Fortunately, I had no such difficulty with their live show. Despite being seated, the lead singer/guitar player plays with a lot of energy, and the emphasis on percussion gives the songs lots of kick. His guitar playing is strong enough that it doesn't need accompaniment by another guitar to fill in the empty spaces. There were a couple of non-album songs that were good but didn't live up to the strongest moments on the album. But then again, this was the first time I heard these songs, so it's hard to judge. The set was just about perfect for me. Other than "Paint the Rust", they played all of my favorite songs on the album, and they closed with the track I was most dying to hear ("The Season"). So that was a lot of fun. Approximate set list that is probably about 70% wrong:

Red and Purple
Eyelids
Fools
Joe's Waltz
Unknown song
Unknown song
Jodi
The Season

And up next were The Walkmen. After seeing them last February, I'd pretty much given up on seeing these guys live. I skipped a series of shows they had earlier in the fall, and I probably would have skipped last night's show if not for The Dodos. The Walkmen do not play $20 worth of music live. For a band with 4 albums of original material, there is no reason for them to play just 15 songs. But that's about all you get from these guys. I could maybe understand/excuse if the songs were longer or more exhausting to perform, but for the most part, the band looks pretty relaxed on stage. Which would be fine IF THEY PLAYED LONGER. When I first saw them, I thought they put on an intense show. Those days seem to be over.

I don't really know what else to say. Song by song, they do fine, but I don't really get why they play live. They don't seem to enjoy it that much. I was especially disappointed last night that they left off two easy croud pleasers ("Little House of Savages" and "Thinking of a Dream I Had"), and I generally try not to let my enjoyment of a show be determined by the band's set list. Because, what would you rather hear? Your favorite songs performed poorly as a chore or songs that the band can get truly fired up playing? Some of my favorite shows of all time have even been dominated by songs I'd never heard before. But with The Walkmen, I can't find anything about their shows to make them more than the sum of the songs they play. So on a night like last night when they don't play my favorites, I go home feeling cheated.


Songs they played mostly not in order:

Donde esta la Playa
In the New Year
Louisiana
Red Moon
Four Provinces
New Country
All Hands on the Cook
On the Water
The Rat
They're Winning
Seven Years of Holidays
Red Moon
Canadian Girl
Long Time Ahead of Us
White Christmas
Another One Goes By

Black Mountain: In the Future plus bonus disc/EP

Operation review all albums I bought in 2008 is moving full steam ahead. This one came out in January. Since it's now December, this review seems a bit late. But something should be said about this band and this band.

Specifically: Fuck Black Mountain. Or fuck Stephan McBean. Or fuck their fans. I don't know. I'm being overly harsh, but something about this album kind of pissed me off.

I'm not entirely sure why I hate this album. Black Mountain's debut album was one of my most beloved albums at the time of its release. And I had really enjoyed the first Pink Mountaintops album (another band from lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Stephen McBean). A part of my backlash is the idiocy of having 2 bands for one songwriter. The Pink Mountaintops appear to be just McBean and whoever he can bring along for the ride while Black Mountain seems to have a set lineup with distinct roles for each band member. BUT IT'S STILL THE SAME GODDAMN SONGWRITER FOR BOTH BANDS. HIS SONGS ARE NOT THAT DIFFERENT. Sorry...got a little excited there.

But it's not just the multiple band names that have soured me on Black Mountain. Although I think that does play a major roles in revealing the weaknesses of both projects. While the Pink Mountaintops are unfocused and unpolished, they are also energetic and less predictable than Black Mountain which may benefit from tighter musicianship but can be completely lifeless.

And lifeless is the word that I'd use to describe too much of the music on this album. It opens with enough promise. "Stormy High" is a solid rocker even if repeating the title of the song over and over seems like a pretty weak refrain. And "Angels" is a nice mellow classic rock tune. But then things start to go wrong, and they just get worse as the album progresses. "Tyrants" attempts to be some sort of 70s prog-rock epic, but the final jam feels totally forced and empty. Singer Amber Webber does her best to howl some life into the tune, but it just never comes.

Things seemed to pick up with "Wucan", but that song is still a just a less interesting "Druganaut" which wasn't even my favorite track to begin with. And with "Queens Will Pay", the album delivers another totally lifeless (that's the theme for this review) attempt at a rock epic. The song sounds alright for most of it's duration. The problem is that at the end when they're supposed to be rocking out, it really doesn't feel like it's picked up very much. The climax is a giant let down.

But if you take 9 of the album's 10 songs, I'd still say maybe 4 out of the 9 are keepers. And the track I'm leaving out is 16 minutes long. So it were a keeper, then Black Mountain would be doing pretty well in my book. Well it's not. In fact, the song in question, "Bright Lights" is probably one of the low moments of the album. Which is sad since each of it's sections could have held some promise, but taken as a whole, the song is just a prog-rock mess. It opens with acoustic guitar and moaning vocals from McBean and Webber. I like nonsense lyrics just fine, but they don't work so well when the vocals are put right at the front of the mix. After a few minutes of this nonsense, the rest of the band joins in with a briskly paced stoner groove. This all sounds pleasant enough, but it doesn't really go anywhere until the song fades to pleasant white noise around the 8 minute mark. That gives way to a slow sludgy bass groove that eventually gets joined by electric guitar. Eventuaally, the song reaches its inevitable climax and it's all over.

When I saw Black Mountain late last year before this album was released, they closed with this song. McBean said they had one last "short" song. I guess he thought he was being cute. The whole time I was listening, I kept wondering when it would end. I wish it had been a short song. None of the individual sections are bad, but they never work together coherently, and the middle part just feels like a waste. The other time I saw this group live, McBean was wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt. After listening to this album, that feels like some kind of joke. His musical influences don't like with the Grateful Dead or any other band famous for jamming. Despite it's long length, there's really no jamming on "Bright Lights" or any of his other tracks. Maybe some noodling, but none of his songs are written to provide room for improvisation and unpredictability.

Black Mountain is a prog-rock band. Maybe that isn't a bad thing, but I've never had a taste for the stuff, and I don't see much fun in reviving the music of the poorest regarded rock music of the 70s. I'm done with these guys.

Saturday December 13 at the Knitting Factory: Oneida Fest 08 with Pterodactyl, Oakley Hall, Parts and Labor and Oneida

There were a lot of other bands, but those are the only ones I saw. Actually saw a little bit of Knyfe Hyts, but I wasn't into it, so we didn't stick around for more than 5 minutes. I didn't go to this show with my girlfriend, so there are no pictures. I'm pretty incompetent with a camera, so if she's not there to take pictures, it doesn't happen. And really at this point, I think I have plenty of pictures of Oneida. Maybe it would have been nice to have a few of Oakley Hall's new lineup, but whatever.

Apparently I was alone in this sentiment, but I was really really irritated that The Knitting Factory didn't have a coat check last night. It was below freezing outside, and everybody there brought a coat. It's kind of hard to dance around and have fun when you have to carry a heavy coat around with you. At least it is for me. Really don't get it. They could have made an easy 200+ dollars if the coat check room had been open. Assholes.

Anyway, I got in right as Pterdactyl started. Walking in, I was amazed at how much the song sounded just like the album. Especially since I'd seen them twice before buying their album and didn't recognize any songs from their live set. Also, they were playing on one of the smaller stages, so you would have expected shittier sound. But it was pretty good. Unfortunately, the stage was pretty small, so I had to get pretty close in order to see. The set included some songs that weren't on the album, but there was plenty for me to recognize this time. They closed with "Esses" and "Polio", the two strongest songs on their album. That's as close as you're going to get to a set list.

Next were Parts and Labor on the main stage. The band was a four piece with a guy playing keyboard/other electronics and singing in the middle, another guy singing and playing bass on one side and a female guitarist who didn't sing on the other end. And of course a drummer...who was actually really good. And holy shit. I just realized I know that girl in the band. Sort of. She's from Austin. Well that's interesting. To me. But I should hurry up and say what I thought of them.

...Which is that I'm not sure. The songs weren't band, but they weren't that great either. There were several interesting moments in the show, but I kind of had a problem with the singers voices. I just didn't like them. Which feels like a shitty reason not to enjoy a band since it's not really their fault. Yeah, not sure if I have anything else to say about that. It was pretty good indie rock that was enjoyable enough, but nothing I feel like I need to hear again. But I could see myself changing my mind about that group...either way.

Next we saw Knyfe Hyts. Well we didn't really see them since we were so far back and the stage was practically nonexistent on the bottom stage. And all we heard was noise. So we left.

Up next was Oakley Hall on the same stage. This time I was smart enough to make sure I had a spot close to the front where I could see. Last time I saw them, all of the members of the band I've known were present for the entire set, except for their drummer who was replaced by STEVE GOULDRING FROM THE MEKONS (sorry, I'm still impressed). This time they had their new regular drummer back with the band. Fred Wallace was also present, but Claudia Mogel wasn't. Instead, they had the woman from Company playing violin and singing, one of the other members of Company playing guitar and two other musicians playing a harmonium and electric piano.

The set focused a lot on newer and quieter material. And while it was nice to see that they're actually playing songs from their new album, mellow mid-tempo country rock wasn't what I was in the mood for. Also, with all of the musicians on stage, there was way too much down time between songs. I left before the last one or two songs because I wanted to get a spot towards the front for Oneida. The set list I remember:

Marine Life
Volume Rambler
Color the Shade
Burry Your Burden
song I don't know
Free Radicals Lament

And then finally. The main attraction. The mighty Oneida. They opened with a cover of Throbbing Gristle's "Discipline" with a guest singer. Bobby played bass, and the whole band was loud. It was pretty cool for about five minutes. It went on for ten. From then on, it was mostly a mix of covers and originals, with the originals sounding better than the covers. The covers were still pretty cool. They played "Hit it and Quit it" by Funkadelic and "She Cracked" by the Modern Lovers. Papa Crazy (also known as Pat Sullivan from Oakley Hall) joined them for "She's Cracked", and it was pretty awesome.

That was all over in about forty minutes. Then came their final jam. It was just tribal drumming and noise. For twenty goddamn minutes. I tend to enjoy Oneida's longer songs on albums, but when they jam live, sometimes the songs can get away from them. I can't really say with this one since it was the first time I'd heard it, but it really never worked for me. And there was no encore or anything after that. Kind of left me disappointed. The set list as I remember it:

Discipline
The River
Hit it and Quit it
Ghost in the Room
She Cracked
I will Haunt You
Final Jam

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paradiso UFO: Glorify Astrological Martyrdom

This year AMT and the Melting Paradiso UFO has really let me down. The live shows were lackluster compared to the shows last year, and both albums I've bought from this version of the band have been nearly unlistenable. I'll try to get to the other one, but for now, I want to talk about this one.

But before I rip into it, I just want to say what an awesome album cover and title. It's probably one of their best ones ever. I just couldn't resist even though I know perfectly well that about half of their albums are really not worth listening to.

And the music? The album has just three tracks and all three are pretty awful. The opener "Phantom Utopia Or Suicidal Star Warriors" is probably the worst of the three. It barely has any melody or energy. Instead, Kawabata cranks up his guitar as loud as he can and just blasts it for 20 goddamn minutes. The second track, "Cosmic Soul Death Disco" is slightly better in that it actually has a recognizable groove that the track centers around. Unfortunately, the tune just isn't that good, and the guitar playing is as uninspired as it was on the last track. The album mercifully closes with a shorter song "Stargate of the Hell" that is my favorite simply because it's 15 minutes shorter than the next shortest song on the album.

This is the second total turd I've heard from this version of Acid Mothers Temple. And this one is actually just a shittier version than it's predecessor. There have been at least two other albums released by them this year, so maybe there are stronger moments on those. But as far as I can see, Kawabata is doing his best to prove that The Melting Paradiso UFO is out of ideas. This is a shame since he's made so much great music with these guys. Since he's the only member of the MPUFO that isn't in the Cosmic Inferno, the first instinct would be to blame Tsyuama Atushi. But I don't think that's the problem. All Acid Mothers Temple projects are basically Kawabata's band. Rather, I think the problem here is a lack of collaboration. AMT&TMPUFO's string of great 2007 albums came after bringing a new female singer to the group and including saxophonist/flutist Ono Ryoko in their sessions. This album just has the core 4 members of the group. Without his female muses to inspire him, Kawabata Makoto seems completely adrift.

The Dodos: Visiter

Well a lot of people seemed to like this one. It'll probably appear on Pitchforkmedia's best albums of the year list, and maybe a couple others. I guess I get it. These guys manage to deliver a lot of strong and distinct tunes with just one guitar and drums. There are a some guest musicians, but for the most part it's just guitar and drums on this album. But then again, I also get why a friend of mine said he didn't "get it". Visiter could either be a sign of great things to come from these guys, or an interesting and enjoyable first album that will fade as time goes by.

....

So that paragraph was written yesterday, and then I tried to write a 2nd one and couldn't really come up with anything. And this is after deleting an already begun review of this album. I don't know why, but I'm having a hard time thinking of what to say about this album. I like it. I have listened to it a fair amount, and I always enjoy it. The first song "Walking" is a nice little introduction to "Red and Purple" which I like alright, but doesn't quite live up to the promise of it's opening. But then things start to get interesting. "Fools" is an enjoyable frantic song. And "Joe's Waltz" pretty much shows off all of The Dodos' strengths. It opens with a pretty nice haunting melody before taking off, being constantly driven by a bluesy riff and a refrain of "You need help!"

And that's not even halfway through the album. Some of the songs are kind of forgettable. I don't really remember what "Winter" or "God" sounds like. And I remember "It's That Time Again" only because it's pretty short and easy to remember (half of the words are in the title). But there are enough good songs on here that I have trouble picking any solid favorite. "Jodi", "Paint the Rust" and "The Season" are all candidates along with "Joe's Waltz".

But I'm still not sure how I feel about the album as a whole. It's a bit too long given the lack of anything to tie the tracks together. It's about an hour long, and it goes by pretty quickly, but it feels like a bit much for a debut album. But I guess they've probably been playing and writing songs for a while now and decided to put as many out there as they were able to. This is just my speculation...

I'm seeing The Dodos this Tuesday, so I'll probably have a better idea then if the success of this album is a fluke or a sign of great things to come. Still not sure, but after this album, I'm definitely open for more.

Retribution Gospel Choir: S/T

There's a part of me that kind of wants to hate the Retribution Gospel Choir. It's a much less substantial Alan Sparhawk live project compared to The Black Eyed Snakes. In fact, the band is basically Low without Mimi and with a different drummer. And two of the best songs on this album are also Low songs. And I really miss The Black Eyed Snakes, and it doesn't look like they're coming back anytime soon. It also doesn't help that this album just doesn't sound as good as the two Black Eyed Snakes albums or any Low albums.

But that's about as far as my complaints with this album go. Clocking in close to 30 minutes, there is not enough time to find much to complain about here. With the Retribution Gospel Choir, Alan Sparhawk has created his most straightforward rock project to date. As a three piece consisting of guitar, bass and drums, The Retribution Gospel Choir deliver 2-4 minute powerful rock songs. Two of the album's strongest moments are re-worked Low songs. Both "Breaker" and "Take Your Time" fit the rock format better than the more challenging approach of Low's last album Drums and Guns.

But not all of the album's strong moments are re-worked Low songs. "Destroyer" and "Holes in our Heads" are also similarly dark and powerful rock songs. "Holes in our Heads" features some really nice guitar playing at the end, further reminding me why Alan Sparhawk is one of my favorite guitarists of all time.

For the most part, this album sticks to gloomy territory. Most of the songs are about as bleak as the material on the last Low album, but with programmed beats, guitar loops and pianos being replaced by a straight-forward rock set up, the anger and despair of "Breaker" comes through even more strongly here. But it's not all gloom and doom on this album; "Hatchet" (also appropriated from Low) and "Easy Prey" are pleasant upbeat rock songs that don't really do anything new or interesting, but still manage to entertain.

With 30% of the material recycled from the last Low album and only one band member who doesn't play with Low, Retribution Gospel Choir feels more like an Alan Sparhawk solo project than an actual new band. Some of these songs would not work with Low, and I'm glad he cared about them enough to record them and tour with them. And given how well both of his recent side projects have worked, I've started wondering if Low is holding Sparhawk back. I wonder if he'd make better music if he didn't confine himself to the name and the band which doesn't allow him the range that he seems so clearly capable of. But so far he hasn't released a disappointing album, so why should I complain?

Primal Scream: Beautiful Future

I'm back, and this time I won't be leaving. I'm going to try to review all the albums that came out before I started this blog. And at least one more that's coming out before the end of the year. It's a review a day, so we'll see if it actually happens. First up is the new Primal Scream album.

I didn't know anything about this album until I saw a review on Pitchforkmedia. I guess everyone has written them off after their last turd, Riot City Blues. Which is a shame, because while that album generally sucked, it had some fun moments, and Primal Scream have recorded plenty of exciting music to earn the right to release one bad album without being written off.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that Beatiful Future may be shitty album #2 for these guys. I honestly haven't made up my mind, but a lot of the problems that were present on Riot City Blues are present here. This was somewhat unexpected for me since Beautiful Future is sonically much closer to Vanishing Point and Evil Heat than the retro-rock of Riot City Blues. features a return to the electronic music that has given us many of Primal Scream's best moments. But the problems on Riot City Blues went much deeper than their return to retro-rock. Specifically, Primal Scream sound like a band that are running out of ideas. They've reinvented their sound so many times that there really is no way of knowing what the "real" Primal Scream sounds like. Like Riot City Blues, Beautiful Future is a forced shift in style that never sounds genuine and is only intermittently entertaining.

My problems with this album started immediately with the opening title track. "Beautiful Future" ranks up there among the most boring songs Primal Scream has ever done. When I heard that this album featured a return to electronic music, I was hoping for another Vanishing Point, but instead, this song let me know that I was in for something else entirely. For the first time in a long time, Primal Scream sounded upbeat and happy, and I hated it. Things got worse with "Can't Go Back" which is just a straightforward rock song that just makes Primal Scream sound old. They're trying to summon more angst than they really have.

Unfortunately, one of the album's strongest moments can't even be properly credited to Primal Scream. The song "I Love to Hurt (You Love to Be Hurt)" features a collaboration with CSS's Lovefoxxx. I didn't even know who she was until I bought this album. After checking out a few clips on Youtube, I'm pretty convinced I would hate that group if I listened to them anymore. But her seductive voice adds a level of energy and interest to a song that would just feel pathetic if Bobby Gillespe was the only one singing. The song is one of the most heavily electronic pieces on the album, and I have a feeling that it's not too far from irritating the fuck out of me, but whatever ballancing act they pulled off on that song worked. The same can't be said for the rest of the album.

This isn't to say that there aren't other enjoyable moments here. The soulful chorus backing the group on "Zombie Man" manages to make that a rather fun song. "Suicide Bomb" also works as a strong mid-temp rock song. But too many of the songs on here are literally forgettable (there are at least two songs that I simply can't recall what they sound like), and too many of the rest are just not very interesting. Even when the album works, it's the sound of a band with no idea what it wants to say or how it wants to say it.