Clutch - S/T

keepers - 3
Interesting times the 90's were that a record with production this dry could get big time airplay. The simple arrangements and restrained overdrive are like Black Sabbath without the anger, and both parts of "Big News" play similarly, but "Rock & Roll Outlaw" seems to be made as a live sing-a-long, but I'd feel pretty silly doing it, and "Texan Book Of The Dead" is just a good idea gone very bad. By the time the bridge comes the song is taken over by "knickknackpaddywack ...oo-ee-oo-ah-ah .....b-i-n-g-o" pre-school songs. The middle of the record is where the meat really is, starting with the gospel organ-flavored "Escape From The Prison Planet"****. Back to the interesting times, the big radio song "Spacegrass"**** actually has the most beautifully dry production on the album. It's a simple ode to the muscle car, with its bellowed chorus over the best bonehead riff. "I Have The Body Of John Wilkes Booth" isn't as stupidly memorable lyrically, but the opening/chorus riff is a good one. "Tight Like That"**** has some pretty great asides (good God, watch me work now) for a funky stoner jam about church of all things. After this bunch "Animal Farm" is a jarring flurry of discordant riffs, after which the album settles into one long mid-tempo groove. Aside from "The House That Peterbilt", with the strange chorus "if you want someone to talk to well I'm your man", there is nothing wrong with these last 4 tracks if you don't mind the religious overtones of "7 Jam".

Comments