Review Summary: The last Devo album of the 20th century, and one that would prove that they needed a break.
After the over mechanical "Shout" and then the very disappointing "Total Devo" 4 years later, it was hard to determine how the band would try to one up their last failure next time. I'd imagine it being stressful, what with the band struggling hard during this time frame--which made it a difficult time for fans of the band at the time, because it really seemed that the band just kept losing any sort of good focus with each album, therefore getting worse which each release. "Shout" focused so hard on sounding fresh and new, that the otherwise good music suffered from it, and "Total Devo" focused so hard on fixing that, that they forgot to make the music any good (and in my opinion, that's worse). So what about this album that would release 2 years afterwards? Well...
It's more of the same of "Total Devo", but only about 10-20% better, and that's it. The same overall sound blueprint, same amount of focus (little to none), same music direction, and the same emphasis on trying to sound more contemporary than "Shout"--which, to be fair, was one of the strengths of the otherwise terrible "Total Devo". At this point, this album may sound like another total dud. But, surprisingly, the band seemed to have finally given their material more thought than last time, because wouldn't you know it? Some songs here have hooks--something I couldn't say about "Total Devo". So that alone makes this album a slight improvement, because while there's nothing here mind blowing, songs like "Stuck in a Loop", "Post Post-Modern Man", the cover of Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew", and "The Big Picture" are what I'd call actually pretty good. I can imagine a great album with these songs on it.
Unfortunately, a great album, this isn't even close, because while that's all well and good, everything else still falls under the "filler" territory, and while there's nothing particularity awful on the album ("Jimmy" comes close, but eh. I've heard worse), it's still either bland new wave, or trying too hard to be quirky while forgetting to make the music anything to write home about (just like "Total Devo"). This album shows the band getting so close to progressing, but just stop shy right at the moment where it would've made any big difference. It's every bit as frustrating as it is disappointing.
Now, I don't think the album is terrible, or even the bands worst, because while it has a lot of the same problems as "Total Devo", it also has all of the pros of it, as well. Diverse and great composition, as well as good production. But instead of those two being the only things going for it like last time, there's a few good songs here, as well as better structuring and pacing--still not great, but it felt more natural this time around.
Aside from that, this album is still a poor effort that makes you wonder where the bands heads were, because this still doesn't feel like any big step up. To be fair, it's no step back from their previous album, but this one feels so "been there, done that", that even though it has a few good songs, it's still mostly bland. And that's the albums biggest issue. While it's got a touch more depth than their previous album, it's also just kind of there with nothing really to it. It's not awful, as it's sometimes really smooth, but the band often struggles to use their noodle to make this anything that would, once again, put them on the map.
