Gary’s like an old friend that you never want to invite over. He’s difficult and he thinks he’s better than everyone else, or that HE came up with the ideas first and, therefore….and you just can’t shut him up.
But, he’s a good friend and when he has something to say, you give him a chance. Right?
In transferring my reviews from the other blog I’ve lost the one for Jagged, but, I’ve heard it, reviewed it and I’m not going there again.
Employing more pops and clicks and glitches in all the right places, Gary settles in to a nice grandfatherly place for a style of music that has sort of seen better days. It’s not the 90s anymore, and I’m not sure everything needs to sound like a soundtrack to a David Fincher movie anymore.
There are no surprises here. Gary’s still scoring apocalyptic sci-fi movies that don’t exist. But he’s employing acoustic guitars instead of just all synths. He’s broadening his palette and that, for the most part, works. He gets downright danceable on “The Fall” and his beats, while they aren’t groundbreaking, they don’t completely suck.
I like Dead Son Rising. The songs may have come from demos for other albums but I can’t recognize the eras for each, save for the slavish devotion to Trent Reznor, it’s not that the songs were written in the 90s (they might have been), it’s that Gary’s stuck in that era. Although, I swear he’s also been listening to OK Computer and KID A a LOT while working on this record. If he could have come up with “Fitter/Happier”, I’m sure he would be happy.
But then again, I’m not sure Gary’s ever been happy.
Grade: B
ASide: Big Noise Transmission, The Fall
BlindSide: Resurrection, We Are The Lost
DownSide: For the Rest of My Life (reprise), Into Battle
