Category: | Review - Internet | Publish date: | |
Source: | Mark Prindle Record Reviews (United States) | ||
Synopsis: |
8 / 10
Even more strides towards maturity, including a song with steel guitar (!), back-up vocals by members of Concrete Blonde and Pearl Jam, and two positively grandiose (and depressing!) slow songs called "Watch It Die" and "Struck A Nerve." Some strange songwriting in display too -- two years earlier, there's no way they would have written something as strangulated and dissonant as "All Good Soldiers," for example. I think this is a terrific, incorrectly maligned record, with big-league fuzzy production and songs to sing aplenty. "Man With A Mission" is like C/W balladry in hardcore punk form, for Pete's sake! SMART, I'm saying!
- Mark Prindle