专辑简介

by Richard FossIf this album were the only thing you had ever heard by Plan 9, you might be forgiven for wondering how this bland bar band had ever managed to obtain a recording contract. With the exception of an interesting guitar figure that begins "Beyond Mombasa," the tunes are all undistinguished mid-tempo rockers without a single idea in the bunch. The poor mixing job that put Eric Stumpo's gruff vocals deep beneath the keyboards and guitars doesn't help -- his lyrics have their moments, but they're all but unintelligible here. The band only breaks the metronome tempo on the sprawling title cut, a stop-and-start instrumental that lasts almost 14 minutes and brings in elements of psychedelia and jazz. It's too little, too late, and after a brief punk blast, Plan 9 goes back to mid-tempo stuff for the closer. Only completists need this album, and even they don't need it much.