Apparently I'm interested enough in these guys to want to bone up. Hey, they're distinctly listenable, and a welcome reprieve from all the dense rap and arty rock I've been listening to lately.
Let's give it up for following through on an album. With the inanity of the opener and the banality of the next few tracks, I was already writing my review in my head, something along the lines of: "well, I guess that's where I got the idea these guys were a cut-rate STP, this album shows none of Songs for the Deaf's promise". Those first four songs are really uninspiring. But then things open up, get angular, arty, agressive, surprisingly unpredictable. The bass lines get lopy, the vocals get menacing, and the song structures get wily: from the short rock burst of The Quick and the Pointless, to the legitimately proggy closer. Even the party line 90's rock stuff (see: In the Fade) is unusually good.
What a curious experience. Did I just need to get in the mood for this band, or was this the result of a misguided attempt to frontload the album, putting all the shit I didn't like in the beginning? I guess that's the folly of the first-listen approach, I'm just not sure at the time of this wirting. In any case, I can see why this band garnered so much buzz and scored Dave Grohl the way they did: its distinctly 90's sludgy rock, and not much more, but it is done well, with just enough adventurousness and edge to be a big fish in that pond.
As an album-oriented guy though, until I change my mind about the first entire third of the album, I'm being generous with 3.5/5
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