Even though the song-writing isn't their best, the production touches and the energy clearly place this in a context that's genuinely B-52ish. There's some really strong stuff on this album, mostly in the middle: "Juliet of Spirits", "Eyes Wide Open", 'Funplex", and "Love in the Year 3000"; I never thought Cindy was anywhere near as good a singer as Kate, but it's great to hear her tone back: it was in retrospect really missing from "Good Stuff"...
That said, there's nothing on this album that's as good as the best of the past ("Planet Claire", "Rock Lobster", "Dirty Back Road", "Private Idaho", "Song for a Future Generation", "Deep Sleep", "Ain't it a Shame", pretty much all of "Cosmic Thing", heck there's even a few tracks on "Good Stuff" that are probably better than all these new tracks), but it's great to add them to the collection.
The word is that after touring so solidly, the band wanted new material to help shake up their sets, and all this material feels a lot like that: not very flashy, but pretty strongly built with an obvious purpose.
In other news -- I also finally picked up Shriekback's last album, "Glory Bumps", and it too has a very similar feel. Nothing on the album matches the brilliance of the best of their past, but Barry Andrews is very clearly comfortable in his own skin, song-writing-wise, and it's a generally strong album with strong links to various parts of the group's past. Highly recommended to fans, but perhaps not as a starting point if you don't know about Shriekback (that starting point is almost certainly "Oil+Gold" or "Big Night Music", depending upon which side of their range of tone you're liable to fall). "Glory Bumps" is perhaps most like "Big Night Music" of all their previous work.
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That said, there's nothing on this album that's as good as the best of the past ("Planet Claire", "Rock Lobster", "Dirty Back Road", "Private Idaho", "Song for a Future Generation", "Deep Sleep", "Ain't it a Shame", pretty much all of "Cosmic Thing", heck there's even a few tracks on "Good Stuff" that are probably better than all these new tracks), but it's great to add them to the collection.
The word is that after touring so solidly, the band wanted new material to help shake up their sets, and all this material feels a lot like that: not very flashy, but pretty strongly built with an obvious purpose.
In other news -- I also finally picked up Shriekback's last album, "Glory Bumps", and it too has a very similar feel. Nothing on the album matches the brilliance of the best of their past, but Barry Andrews is very clearly comfortable in his own skin, song-writing-wise, and it's a generally strong album with strong links to various parts of the group's past. Highly recommended to fans, but perhaps not as a starting point if you don't know about Shriekback (that starting point is almost certainly "Oil+Gold" or "Big Night Music", depending upon which side of their range of tone you're liable to fall). "Glory Bumps" is perhaps most like "Big Night Music" of all their previous work.