Best Band in the World Ruined by Vocals
4
By Cowbell-Challenged
It is completely beyond me how a band that can create such amazing music often ruins their songs with poor lyrics and vocals imaginable. Think of every great prog, metal, and rock band for the last four decades—Yes, Crimson, Dream Theater, the Dead, Phish, Mahavishnu, Porcupine Tree, the Police, Ozric Tentacles, Talking Heads, U2, NIN—and imagine all that stellar musicianship put into ONE SINGLE BAND. The weak point of the band is its vocals, which are too often Just Not Good Enough. This music is SO good that it DOESN'T NEED VOCALS. My original review of this album was a three-star; but after a week of listening to this album, and buying more UMcG albums, I've changed my mind. I'm the idiot here, in a way, since the example I gave in my previous review as having some of the most insipid lyrics ("Wappy Sprayberry") I now think is one of the best songs ever written (by any band). I do think that UMcG's work is spotty and not very consistent. But if you buy, say, ten albums or so, you can cull about 20-40% from each album and build a stellar six-hour playlist. UMcG are worth it: keep digging, pass by the weak tunes, and savor the good ones—they perform some of the best music made in decades.
