Review Summary: Calm, Soothing, Abrasive, Jarring, Timeless
Let me join the in the chorus of praise for this album. I can’t think of many other albums from the 90’s that have not only aged well, but has actually seen its audience grow over time. This album was so underappreciated at the time of its release due the commercialization of grunge and a feeling of guilty by association. Failure was being pushed off as another Nirvana, like so many artists of the early to mid-90’s, and simply got lost in the mix. However, far from being derivative of the times, this album carved out its own niche in modern rock history.
Sonically, this is reminiscent of Dark Side of the Moon, from its forward-looking production, to coherence in themes and sound found on it. It can be abrasive, even jarring, and yet, all the while leave you floating away into the ether. Musically, it is an ‘alternative’ album, depending on a lot of the ‘soft/loud’ dynamics, yet even within those boundaries it breaks the rules. There are shimmering acoustic guitars, delayed out velvety clean electric guitars, and there is the off-time, sometimes aggressive drumming, of Kelli Scott, and the strange atonal riffs that are littered throughout the album.
Vocally, Ken Andrews is a master of making the most of his voice and commanding the emotion of the song without necessarily being the most gifted vocalist. Much like Trent Reznor and so many other vocalists with limited ranges, his dry, sometimes dead pan delivery, gives a much need to heft to the songs. Lyrically, this album is about drugs, more specifically, heroin. You don’t have listen to these songs with that fixed idea going in, as many of the songs serve as double entendre and you can find something personal to relate them to. However, songs like Saturday Savior, The Nurse Who Love Me, and Stuck on You, offer a stark realistic look into the depravity of addiction. The lyrics, listened to with full-knowledge of the picture they are painting, offers up a dark dark world of utter nihilism.
This album, like most of the great albums, has a greater impact, when taken in as a whole. The songs are sequenced seamlessly and the album is devoid of any filler. The instrumental tracks are not meant to be listened to as songs, they are there to literally give you a break as the album moves forward. The music is the poster child for what trippy and spaced out post-rock can be, while the vocals and lyrics drive home a more visceral image into the listener’s head. Fitting much more in line with what Tool and Helmet did than Nirvana or Soundgarden, this album has defied the year of its conception by staying timeless and not sounding aged, even by today’s modern production standards. Lyrically, it will always be relevant, as long as there are drugs, as long as there are users, and they are in or have been to that dark place in their own lives.
