| some tracks are dancey, some are machine gun rapid fire industrial metal (big heavy guitar action included), some tracks have more of an electro-ambient thing going on, vocals are sometimes whispered, sometimes heavily distorted, sometimes otherwise heavily processed. samples, etc. very good genre record. 1. Mute 4:19 2. Rewind 4:19 3. Fragment 4:38 4. Time To Failure 1:27 5. Perforated 3:59 6. Exit Wound 4:27 7. Serenity 4:00 8. Outpatient 5:02 9. Dead Air 3:29 |
HIGH POINTS: Here We Are, One Thousand, Downtown, Just Don't Know, Funk For Breakfast, Hey Man. LOW POINTS: All God's Children, What's In A Name.
On Blackball's follow-up to the masterpiece of Super Heavy Dreamscape Christopher Scott takes the music in more of a funk direction rather than just alternative hard rock. In places this also seems to be a more personal release for him, writing about his own experiences in a way that only a few songs showed before. It's now almost a Christopher Scott solo album (though he did write all of the songs before as well), where it seems the focus is totally on him and his music, with the other members playing their instruments just to make it all work. Not that this is superior to Blackball's debut. No, on Hope we have the presence of a few less than spectacular moments, but to make up for those are several great songs, the best of which are on par with those from the debut.
I underrated this album for a long time, and I'm still not sure why. The first time I listened to it I was shocked at how different it was from before. There was so much funk and the mood was not as lonely and depressing as Super Heavy Dreamscape. The vast majority of this is, for lack of a better term, a happy release. And that didn't strike me as something Blackball should do. Not to mention I found this in the metal section and there's hardly any metal on it at all. Maybe the chorus of "Funk For Breakfast" but that's about it. The rest is hard funk, but in many places without very very little hard rock at all.
But now, after many many more listens I can really see how great this album is. The happier mood brings in something that we didn't have as much of on the debut. Hope is a more diverse outing than before, and this means that chances are if you end up buying Blackball's two albums you'll enjoy this one more. But I don't and I'm the review so there. Not that I don't have my reasons for liking this album less than the other. First of all there's "All God's Children" which, despite a catchy melody, is far too upbeat even for this album. "What's In A Name" is just kind of a dull go nowhere song with one of the lesser choruses I've heard Scott come up with.
The other tracks are all excellent, each one giving it's little addition to the album. "Here We Are" is especially the place where Scott's personal attitude and vocals come, in a somewhat similar style to "Chasing Everyone Away." It's a song about his struggles with his family, sung with a feeling so strong and in a style that only he and Blackball could do. Another similar in style to "Here We Are" is the closing "One Thousand," another great both songs are excellent, the highlights of the album by far.
I've also grown to appreciate the more fun aspects of this album as well. "Hey Man" is a wonderfully catchy entry and "Twisted Again" is a short but fun song that fits right into the album. "Just Don't Know" is, ok, not one of the fun songs on here, but I've reached a point where the horns on the chorus don't bother me at all anymore. And it's got some of Scott's greatest lyrics too. That's one thing that hasn't changed. What he writes about is different than before, but the way he writes it is the same great stuff we've always had.
Overall Hope doesn't have the strength of melody, atmosphere, or emotion to be considered superior to Super Heavy Dreamscape, but Scott's personal touch to the album, along with more great melodies, makes Hope a great buy. Before he was telling us about ourselves. Now he's telling us about himself, and it all adds up to make Blackball one of the best obscure bands of the nineties, and Christopher Scott one of the most talented songwriters to appear in modern music as well.
Blackball was a side project of precious death vocalist and lyricist chris scott.
| 1 | Colors Of Coalinga | |
| 2 | Violence Gone | |
| 3 | Wireless Rattle | |
| 4 | Pantera Lines | |
| 5 | Wyoming Hair | |
| 6 | Show Pride In Coalinga | |
| 7 | Rotten Cakes | |
| 8 | Astronaut | |
| 9 | Big Ol' Cheese | |
| 10 | Tired | |
| 11 | Spanish Rice | |
| 12 | Der Michelint | |
| 13 | McPatrick's Lament | |
| 14 | Element Of Life | |
| 15 | January's Here | |
| 16 | Time To Retire | |
| 17 | Pirelli Deli | |
| 18 | Bay's Ball | |
| 19 | New One's |
Remember the first time you heard Neurosis and remember how much they scared you? It’d be easy not to pick up on them, because their totally singular music – beautiful, imposing, grand, and fragile all at once – falls through the cracks of so many genres. But they remain a powerful group. From Souls at Zero through A Sun That Never Sets, their finely wrought but heavy-as-fuck music is like the perfect soundtrack to new millennium melancholy, a tightly wrapped ball of rage, fear, and hope. Whether playing a wistful, slightly bitter ballad or serving up skull-crushing, mutant riffs, Neurosis is a straight-up rhythm and blues band.
So what about the two together? Well, whoever thought up this combination is a genius. In retrospect, it might seem like a natural – two bands that are dark as pitch, interested in experimental textures, love collecting found sounds and samples, and can narrate America’s heart of darkness – but this is their first collaboration. Jarboe’s idiosyncratic background is pretty familiar to fans, but listening to this wondrous record finally brought it home to me that what she brings to the table is a flair for the gothic. Not the pasty-faced, spiky-haired, Sisters of Mercy gothic. I mean the real, haunted landscape, ghosts of the subconscious, creepy Faulknerian Southern gothic spirit. On the opening “Within” she intones, in a perfectly rendered Southern accent, “I tell ya, if God wants to take me He will.” Amid the crushing thunder of Neurosis, it sends a chill right through me (particularly when it’s followed by the slithering whisper “He’s coming . . . “ and the unnerving nursery-rhyme singing). Her voice can ring out clear as a bell, smothered in blues, or it can deliver a pain-wracked croak (as on “Erase” where she howls “Defy me . . . Defile me” again and again until, after Neurosis have stopped playing, her anguished voice blares through the speakers). The lyrics are confessional, deeply personal and there are times – as when Jarboe prays to Mary, something pretty much nobody else this side of Diamanda Galas could pull off convincingly – when I almost felt ashamed, as if violating someone’s privacy.
The band, always attuned to things supernatural and/or spiritual, is not simply a backup group; this is an organic project all the way, and they create perfect vehicles for Jarboe’s haunted visions. The structures are taut enough to create tension befitting the lyrics, focused enough to embellish the imagery; but the playing is also limber enough to thicken the largely ominous mood. Sure, they still grind it out here and there, but Neurosis’ music has been sounding much sparer of late, trimmed down in a way that’s spot-on perfect for this recording. They really use the full dynamic range of which they’re capable; they work in detailed nuance, even as they hit with the force of a piledriver. In a world of metal fakers, where lesser bands mistake sheer volume for heaviness, I’m thankful that these guys are still around and playing the real deal. One listen to the truly creepy pulse of “His Last Words” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Neurosis & Jarboe is an album for which I had high expectations. They’ve been surpassed. Whatever shortcomings joint musical ventures can sometimes have, I hear none of them here. A weird, unnerving synthesis that stays with you long after the record has stopped, this is one of the year’s best.---By Jason Bivins"
1. within
2. his last words
3. taker
4. receive
5. erase
6. cringe
7. in harm's way
8. seizure
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