Spring Break
CD Review: !!! make us go WOW!!!
Rachel McCarty
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: Entertainment
- Page 1 of 1
04/06/07 - Imagining the eight members of !!! (Chk Chk Chk) clad in short-shorts and panting, with sweat dripping down their pale skin, is no way to form a great first impression.
But its new album, Myth Takes, will wipe that image from your mind. Well maybe not entirely, but just try not to think about it.
The workout routine is the sworn secret to success though. After renting a huge house on the wrong side of the tracks in Nashville, Tenn., the band spent every morning exercising before recording all night.
Myth Takes is not easily compared to anything else, as !!! is kind of in a league of its own. While most bands get thrown into the alt-rock bin at the record store when the apathetic employee stocking the shelves is indecisive about a genre, !!! doesn't even fit in there.
Just a sampling of songs from Myth Takes will leave you wondering if it was discotheque, electronica or psychedelic rock. I would say it's somewhere between progressive rock and electronica, but nonetheless rather enjoyable.
The album begins with several tracks that conform to standard song patterns and lengths before turning into longer jam sessions. Its progressive songs are not as easy to fall in love with, but an open ear will allow you to at least appreciate the attempt.
Stand out tracks include "All My Heroes are Weirdos," "Bend Over Beethoven" and "Sweet Life." Each song has a pounding, shake-the-floors and rattle-the-windows beat that drives the album along.
Transitions between songs are seamless and the album feels like an extended jam session. As such, differentiating between tracks is not an easy task. Ten tracks might seem short for a full album, but with several eight-minute songs there's plenty of !!! to go around.
Where the album takes a turn for the worse is on the last track, "Infinifold." The slow song is overloaded with synth and piano and could easily have been on the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
While this could already be seen as its downfall, the real problem is with lead vocalist Nic Offer. He has no problem with the yelps and screams that populate the lyrics of most songs on the album, but he just can't sing. And his fragile effort to hit any of the notes is hard on the ears.
It's as if Chris Martin was tone deaf and singing "Clocks." He probably wouldn't have married Gwyneth if that was the case.
You're most likely never going to hear Myth Takes on the radio, so you'll have to bite the bullet and buy this one unheard if you think you can handle the whacked out variety.
But its new album, Myth Takes, will wipe that image from your mind. Well maybe not entirely, but just try not to think about it.
The workout routine is the sworn secret to success though. After renting a huge house on the wrong side of the tracks in Nashville, Tenn., the band spent every morning exercising before recording all night.
Myth Takes is not easily compared to anything else, as !!! is kind of in a league of its own. While most bands get thrown into the alt-rock bin at the record store when the apathetic employee stocking the shelves is indecisive about a genre, !!! doesn't even fit in there.
Just a sampling of songs from Myth Takes will leave you wondering if it was discotheque, electronica or psychedelic rock. I would say it's somewhere between progressive rock and electronica, but nonetheless rather enjoyable.
The album begins with several tracks that conform to standard song patterns and lengths before turning into longer jam sessions. Its progressive songs are not as easy to fall in love with, but an open ear will allow you to at least appreciate the attempt.
Stand out tracks include "All My Heroes are Weirdos," "Bend Over Beethoven" and "Sweet Life." Each song has a pounding, shake-the-floors and rattle-the-windows beat that drives the album along.
Transitions between songs are seamless and the album feels like an extended jam session. As such, differentiating between tracks is not an easy task. Ten tracks might seem short for a full album, but with several eight-minute songs there's plenty of !!! to go around.
Where the album takes a turn for the worse is on the last track, "Infinifold." The slow song is overloaded with synth and piano and could easily have been on the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
While this could already be seen as its downfall, the real problem is with lead vocalist Nic Offer. He has no problem with the yelps and screams that populate the lyrics of most songs on the album, but he just can't sing. And his fragile effort to hit any of the notes is hard on the ears.
It's as if Chris Martin was tone deaf and singing "Clocks." He probably wouldn't have married Gwyneth if that was the case.
You're most likely never going to hear Myth Takes on the radio, so you'll have to bite the bullet and buy this one unheard if you think you can handle the whacked out variety.
