Review Summary: Time is not always kind.
If there's one thing you can count on Henry doing, it's calling it quits when it feels like it's time to. Quite honestly,
Nice shows wearing signs of creativity on almost every level of this 14 track behemoth, and after the lukewarm reception the album recieved, I think Rollins knew it was time to hang up the mic and call it a day. It's an unfortunate predicament to be in, especially when you take into account Rollins Band has had a bloody good run of consistent, sonically varied and different albums, since forming way back in 1987. But after
Come In And Burn -- even though it is by no means a "bad" album --
Get Some Go Again is where the cracks begin to set in.
Nice follows on the same mistakes
Get Some Go Again made, but in larger quantity. And, bless Henry for trying, this is really down to Rollins falling a little short on vocal ability, than his ambitious style changes; the music never seems to sit right with what he tries to sing: it comes out a little corny at times, other times it just feels dried out and tired. His lyrics aren't quite as scathing or as abrasive as they used to be, and while he, thankfully, never sounds complacent, he just lacks a lot of the edginess and fire he had previously. Topics of discussion feel recycled, and a lot of the riffs on offer are frankly generic to say the least. One thing I've always really enjoyed about Rollins Band music is the production has always had a thick wall of brutality, with Henry tearing it up right next to the music, but the production here feels flat and lifeless; the bass tones are tinny, drums lack punch, and the band's decisions to write more rock n' roll influenced riffs this time doesn't help matters either.
The band has always had a problem with writing way above their weight, and -- even with their brilliant albums -- frequently release albums with hefty run times, with tracks always averaging at 5+ minutes. Now, when the band were at optimum creativity, they managed to prevent this from being a hindrance, but here, this is where the LP takes the biggest hit. At 14 tracks, with the majority of songs being 4-5 minutes
Nice is just too damn long. The worst part of it all is that there isn't really a terrible track here -- although "I Want So Much More" comes damn close -- but there isn't anything here that is particularly memorable either; with the exception of maybe "Your Number Is One" everything on
Nice becomes forgettable pretty quickly.
Overall,
Nice doesn't have the ability to do what the rest of the band's discography does so well, and to add salt to the wound, Henry just doesn't have the vocal prowess to push the band any further stylistically, which is why anything new attempted here comes out clunky or awkward. It's a shame to see the band ending things on such a dull note, but at least Henry Rollins knows when the band's exhausted all its resources. It's not a horrible album, but when you compare this to anything previous it's a terrible drop in quality.
Poor.
Editions: CD(LTD), C̶D̶, M̶P̶3̶
Packaging: Digipak
Special Edition: The LTD version of the LP contains two extra tracks.
