Sure the production sounds dated now, but at the time Maida's yowling vocals and snare drums that go 'ping' fit right in with the times, and the punchy but droning riff of "Starseed"**** sounded like an alarm call. The title song**** has similar attributes though at a more casual pace; the radio-friendly chorus 'I can't live here anymore, but it's hard when you reach for that floor' suggest that it could have been another big hit. Most of the album uses the same devices (as I remember the 90's were all about the drones) but there are cool bits in most of the songs, such as the slippery 'eastern' riff of "Denied"****. The dissonant harmony of "Supersatellite" is an attention grabbing hook, and the spooky drums in "Under Zenith" are interesting as well, but they're pretty generic otherwise. In retrospect there probably wasn't that much difference between OLP and contemporaries like Seven Mary Three, though OLP has Maida's middling poetry instead of 7M3's neanderthal's grunts, and the guitar parts are based on more intricate riffs. Besides "Starseed" which has been one of my favorites since back in the day, some of the better moments did grow on me, despite Maida's weird vocals; he sprinkles some pretty outrageous tics throughout the album, but I generally expect Canadians to be quirky.
Comments