o m a h a ' s ~ r e v i e w POSTED BY OMAHAVIKE (posted on June 19, at bigwreck.com). Well, I've had some time to fully digest the album and here are my true thoughts on the recent effort. Keep in mind that these comments are made by myself alone with some input from others to sway my opinion. I may be a little rough, but it's honest. And before you all start to flame me, remind yourself that this is an opinion. All rational arguments are welcome. Also, feel free to add any of your own comments/reviews to this thread. Alright, P&G is a definite departure from their last album. Wildly. In fact, as I posed to a buddy of mine, it's fantastically bold. There's nothing cliche in this work. That's really what I admire of it. It doesn't follow a prescribed writing formula that a lot of the drab productions are taking on (i.e. verse, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, solo, chorus, etc). It's that freedom and the unexpected that makes this record shine. Most sophmore releases to a successful album try to recreate the previous success. It's like catching a wave and the record company wants you to ride that wave for the sake of record sales. That's a prescription for disaster, but BW definitely didn't make that mistake here. I don't think there's a single cut on here that is radio friendly. Sadly enough, mainstream radio just isn't mature enough for this kind of record. That's fine by me, for that lets me introduce this album to people who'd never heard such a well constructed rock effort. That sucks for the band and their wallets, though. Hopefully this record will make its way into enough hands. *very* dark album and I've noticed a "cheating" theme throughout. That is a downer for me personally and is probably not the proper choice for elevator music in a psycho ward. In addition, it is much heavier than the first. The texture is beautiful on here, and I feel a lot of shading going on. Listen to the album closely and pick out the little shit that's going on in the music behind the stuff that's "up front". You'll see what I mean. The introduction of keys was definitely the way to go. They're buried in a lot more songs than you'd think. It's so very difficult to do that on a modern rock record. What really slapped me silly were the harmonies. I cannot give the writing of backing vocals enough praise. Incredibly well done and well placed. I feel some down-home-cookin' on this record. It has some southern licks to it. There are some Queen type operatic moments as well. When are they going to hit up on some funk? Just goes to show that BW is a band that has no boundaries and are not characterized by a certain sound. Always a pleasurable surprise, no pun intended. A few bad notes: Production wise, I didn't like some of the rhythm guitars tone. On some cuts it seemed rather muffled. Also, some of the drums get drowned out here and there. By throwing in the aforementioned variation of writing, I felt like the songs were a bit choppy at times and lacked a fluidity to them. It was said to me that this was the ballsiest record Soundgarden never made. I suppose that's a pretty descriptive analogy to use. For instance, look at Broken Hands. Not that difficult to write a two chord progression. But then is dives into this soaring melody. Seems choppy to me. In addition, a few of the tracks just end without an ending. It gives me the impression that they just got sick of the song and called it quits right there - and leaves me hanging with no resolution, man! Grade: A-(no ass kissing) One of the better albums of this year. Haven't found a better one yet. My quote of the album: "I'm always over at your place, and I'm licking your hmm hmm."