Thursday, June 6, 2013

Midlife, no crisis



Look man, adrenaline junkie shtick's fine for vapid hacks surfing vapor trails to nowhere. Me, I dig a grimy rut slicked with oily mope. It's right there, points the skeletal digit, hand hallucinating over a shaky ticker, ears flapping as yours truly breezes wearily through discarded puns on the band's name and/or the Cretaceous. Eureka, that signifies old, and lo, a couple more greys than yesterday.

So what? As we learned last time out, "maturing" is for musical halfwits, but aging fully graced, a magically different ballad. Once upon an Angus: "I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same." Here, a stretch, but it's new Alice, they've been at it since before my kids were born and so know what the fuck they're doing, the unbreakable Motörhead of mood metal.

Don't get naming the entire album after the sole "topical" track, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here for the under-a-rock adjacent, but everyone's brainwaves are different. Song's certainly eerie, though, though Hung on a Hook, whoa, Layne or no, see despondency through a glass, darkly. Funny how Chuck Woolery infernos used to blast open proceedings, but a deep (ten of twelve tracks clocking over five minutes) Hollow has good n' plenty of a sticky, bendy gait, defiantly smacking away one of the album's few flaws, namely that a speedy, let 'er rip once in a full moon would be keen.

Contradicting myself, brick wall drones are wheelhoused, but second single Stone hasn't stuck yet (neither had Lab Monkey, which I already like thrice more than Monday), but the Jar of Flies-worthy Voices, lordy, 'tis No Excuses horizontal harmonizing with a daydream haze, birthing their love child. Opposite, 99 44/100% pure facelifting with the chromatic, rambling, ergo self-titled-ish Phantom Limb, and har ye har ye, new guy getting more turns at the mic this time around beyond righteous and mandatory two-parts.

We all wanna tap our foot, crack open our skulls on the stage, feast on the goo inside. It's why pop craft welded to brontosaurs riffs makes overcast barbs like Low Ceiling soar, whilst Scalpel is cut primarily out of the former, a chorus of pure fucking ear candy. Being either moody or cranky or both, this stomper of a record, peppered with singer-songwriter longhair jams once strung out so lovely in Cantrell's solo oeuvre, perhaps less black and more grey, riffs that once lopped off bloody chunks now grinding gobs of weathered flesh instead, still guards the sound of a cold, rainy day. Like today! (sadly, not that cold) Brings an invisible ink smile to my face.

12 comments:

Prunella Vulgaris said...

I'm digging it, will probably have to spin it in the car to get the full effect but it's doing it for me. Harmonies are great, it feels like the new incarnation's 'Jar of Flies' more than anything else, which is good. I'll probably pick it up this week.

Too bad Layne didn't have Lemmy Mutant genes though.

Randal Graves said...

That's an apt description; this time around there's just a bit more crunch. DuVall's got a strong voice, and the harmonies are awyissy, but yeah, another plate of Layne would have been nice.

No one has the Lemmy Mutant gene. He should be the subject of the first, inevitable human cloning project.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Is there an album called "Lemmy Mutant Gene", yet?
~

Life As I Know It Now said...

Good on you for still smiling, you old metal head fart. :)

Randal Graves said...

if, gonna steal that for my imaginary dirtbag blues rock side project.

life, just on the inside. The scowl protects me from unwanted conversation!

Commander Zaius said...

Being either moody or cranky or both...

That pretty much describes me at mid-life.

susan said...

It's always nice to know some new music has lifted your spirits.

Demeur said...

Sorry I've been too busy with turkish translations now what's that you say? Running out of cranial hard disk space to fit another punk tune?

Laura said...

For a minute there, I thought you might have finally turned 40.

((Hugs))
Laura

Tom Harper said...

"I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same."

That reminds me of when the Moody Blues finally called it quits after umpteen albums that sounded identical. Their announcement was "we want to quit while we're still fresh."

Nunly said...

I don't listen to much music anymore, just when I want to put it on in the car to annoy the shit out of my son. Maybe it's time to expand my horizon of music genre's. Do they have anything in the way of "Sunshine Lollipops" bubblegum music with a tinge of heavy metal and Bach? For now, I'll go back in time to my old Weezer favorites. Brings back memories of good times. Sigh.

Nunly said...

Happy Father's Day, Randal. Hope your day is filled with heavy metal music, zombie movies and all the stuff that Randal likes. Ok....not ALL the stuff, that might get you in trouble. :-)

Have a good one.