*keepers-2*avg-2.69
At first BJM doesn't seem awful so much as disappointing, but an objective look track by track reveals that most are truly lackluster, starting with the fact that most of the tracks, including "Starcleaner" and "Here It Comes" perceptibly drag, regardless of the orchestral ambition of "Here To Go" and "Tschusse" and creepy but cluttered "Maryanne". Within the band kooky keyboard experiments like the appropriately named "Introesque", "Prozac Vs. Heroin Revisited", and "The Pregnancy Test" probably sounded like interesting diversions from having to worry about hooks and feel, but don't pay off for me. The three-song set of "When Jokers Attack"**** (with a trademark Newcombe guitar hook), the mellow shuffle of "Prozac Vs. Heroin", and the great (circus- keyboard enhanced) W-era inter-generational f-you of "Geezers"**** form a solid center for the album, but the uninspired campfire jams ("You Look Great When I'm fucked Up - 6:51 of it for heavens sake, and "Some Things Go Without Saying") and "A New Low In Getting High", which is just "When Jokers Attack" without a guitar hook, just fill out an album already getting too long.
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