Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed

Here are three music reviews. The title refers to them, and you can guess for yourself which is which:

Incubus "Trust Fall (Side A)" (EP) (2015)  ** and 2/3

This EP is a bit of a mixed bag.  The title track is a decent attempt at getting back to the "A Crow Left Of The Murder" sound, which is honestly the best one can hope for from Incubus at this point.  "Make Out Party" is a bizarre choice for track 2, as it sounds like an 8 or 9.  It might be the slowest song the band has ever done pace wise, Brandon Boyd does a falsetto for the verses, then there's a Floyd-ish keyboard lead in the middle, all with really grungy guitars sludging it out.  It gets better as the song goes along, but when you hear it the first time, it's really out of nowhere for the band and in the context of the EP.  "Absolution Calling" (the single) starts like its gonna be an electronic song, but manages to be a somewhat decent minor key alt rock song.  "Dance Like You're Dumb" sounds like they're going all big bottom by playing two distorted basses on a faster-paced number that may'nt've been out of place on "Light Grenades" (except for the 70's keyboard solo in the middle).

Overall, "Trust Fall" is interesting as far as post "Morning View" Incubus goes.  It's better than "If Not Now, When?" at least, which is a step in the right direction for any band.

Queens Of The Stone Age "...Like Clockwork" (2013)  *** and 2/5

Take Queens Of The Stone Age's previous work and filter it through David Bowie and Trent Reznor, and you have "...Like Clockwork".  This album was a lot dancier and a lot fancier than I imagined it would be, with a lot of variety in pace and influence.  More harmonious than I expected, too, yet still on the frame of a hard rock band.  Definitely interesting.

Last Action Hero (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1993)  ***

Okay, so here's a question: Why in 2015 should I review the soundtrack to a movie that a) Came out 22 years ago, b) Was a COLOSSAL flop, and c) Is filled with B-Sides and curiosities?  Well, I'll tell you.  First off, they may be B-Sides, but there is some decent material to be had.  Second, soundtracks were a BIG fucking deal back then.  1993 is the year when The Bodyguard went apeshit and became one of the biggest selling albums of all time.  The Crow soundtrack the same year was big bid'ness in launching industrial alt rock into the stratosphere.  There's a reason so many soundtracks now litter the 50 cent bins of used CD stores: a LOT of people bought these shits.  The other point I'd make is that every band on this CD is still together twenty-two years later.

What have we got on here?:

AC/DC's "Big Gun", which is one of their best post "Back In Black" songs.

Alice In Chains with "What The Hell Have I" and "A Little Bitter" which were recorded for "Dirt" but work better here in my opinion; they would've changed the whole flow of that album.

"Angry Again" is a decent mid-paced Megadeth jam, and it foreshadows the half step down tuning and slower direction of "Youthanasia".

"Real World" by Queensryche has Michael Kamen guesting, though "taking the fuck over" would've been more accurate.  The second half of the song is the climax of an action scene instead of the "Silent Lucidity Part II" of the first half.

It's a good thing I proofread these, because on the first run-through, I totally forgot about "Two Steps Behind" by Def Leppard, in spite of listening to it, AND reading the Wikipedia article about it (yes, there is one).  The song is that unremarkable.  It's an acoustic ballady thing that managed to keep Def Leppard relevant for another year past their sell-by date.

I've always had a soft spot for "Poison My Eyes", though now that I hear it again, I think the production on this and Anthrax's "Sound Of White Noise" alike are way too smooth.  I don't know if it's the passage of time or the experience in working with music I have now, but this shit deserved more grit.  It's a cool fuckin' song, though.

There's a live version of "Dream On" by Aerosmith and an orchestra, and it's before they became too old for this shit, so it works.

Cypress Hill comes out of fucking nowhere with a rap song because this is when gangsta rap was at its zenith and when white kids REALLY started buying this shit.  "Cock The Hammer" is a Cypress Hill song.  It's from their peak period of commercial and critical success, so if you like Cypress, you'll like this shit.

"Swim" is a song I used to love (and is honestly the heaviest song on this album; those chords are BOSS), but I over-played the SHIT out of it at three different points in my life (when I first got the soundtrack, when I first got Fishbone's album with it, and when I had it on three different mix tapes for my car).  It's a cool song, if a little quirky, but I have to skip it any time it comes up.  I've burned it out for good.

Tesla does the title track (which can be heard over the end credits, for all the good it did the band).  It sounds like an 80's band trying to find themselves in the early 90's.  It's not terrible, but it's nothing to write home about.

The last song has Michael Kamen and fucking BUCKETHEAD, possibly before anybody knew who he was.  (Well, considering he wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head to hide his identity, does anybody really know who he is now?)  Anyway, this is a few movements from the score.  Standard action movie soundtrack fare with a very toned down version of Buckethead's theatrics in the back half.


So there you have it.  More than you ever wanted to know about three albums you may never listen to.  I'll be around this here internet thing, continuing to do my thing when you least expect it.  In the words of my great-aunt Cathie, "Ta-ta."