New Monster Magnet Album

[Jon Jarrett]

On Sat, 4 Nov 2000, Johnny Firic wrote:

> > > How does it compare sound wise to other MM albums?    Can you
> > > compare it to other discs?
> >
> >Soundwise it´s better than Superjudge but not as good as Powertrip. Some
> >very
> >good swooshy synth effects in full stereo can be heard though.
> >Hope that helps.
>
> Ugh - I couldn't _disagree_ more. "Dopes to infinity" vs. "Powertrip" is
> just like "Secret Treaties" vs. "Agents of fortune". "Dopes" is one of THE
> albums for me, it just has everything. It starts off very heavy (the 1st
> song is prolly the heaviest on the album, and also the 2nd track, the
> Warhead). It gets trippier later, with longer guitar/synth jams, around the
> middle of the album. Then, at the end, my favorite part, "Dead Christmas",
> "King of Mars", "Theme from Masterburner", "Vertigo" - four quiet, slow, but
> still heavy songs ("Theme" is an instrumental). And that wierd coda in the
> end. Not to mention the lyrics - their best lyrics are on this album
> (especially I think "Blow 'em off" has great lyrics).

        I agree with this, except that the original thread was about the
new album, not _Dopes_. I find _Dopes_ drags a little towards the
end. `Third Alternative' and `Vertigo' go on for too long for my liking,
and there's only `Dead Christmas' (which is great) to break up the sludge.

> "Powertrip" is a classic sellout album. Only the first song ("Crop circle")
> and the last one ("Your lies become you") could fit on any of their previous
> albums. The rest is IMO not as good, more pop-wise written songs. It's all
> "heavy metal", but more like a cross Metallica and Misfits, the songs are
> straightforward verse-chorus type of songs, with almost no jams at all. A
> better balance of the Misfits-like songs and their "classic" jammy songs
> would have been much better IMO. It's not a bad album overall, but certainly
> not as good as "Dopes".

        It is in fact a heavy metal album, except for the Hawkwind rip-off
`Bummer', which is pretty cool, and the garage psych numbers - I think `19
Witches' and `See You in Hell' are both damn good songs, just not what
anything except the earliest MM (remember `Longhair'?) would lead you to
expect. And then of course there's `Goliath and the Vampires' which is a
marvellous thing to have on a sell-out album. The heavy-metal equivalent
of `Brainticket'...

> Otther albums: Superjudge - similar to "Dopes", but not as good, with slower
> songs and lots and lots of overlaying guitars. The only standout song is
> "Cage around the sun", I would say. If you liked "Dopes" you'll prolly like
> "Superjudge" as well.

        I think _Superjudge_ is as you say a less good _Dopes_ but I have
to champion `Dinosaur Vacume' which is top-class.

> "Spine of God" - nothing but jams here. It's been more than a year since I
> listened to this one. Nowhere near as heavy as the later albums, but the
> jams don't really do the job either. Sorry, this one just isn't very good.

        Well, listen to it again, it's the *best*! `Nod Scene' and `Spine
of God' are the origins of stoner rock that isn't derived from Kyuss. In
no way are these jam songs, and the cover of Grand Funk's `Sin's a Good
Man's Brother' is likewise on-the-nail rock'n'roll. The first two I
mentioned, you can practically see dope smoke puffing out of the
speakers. And the jams are to my mind liquid, slippery and marvellous. If
it wasn't for the rough production this one would clearly blow all the
others away. Except that the heavy metal fans might not like it. Well,
more fool they.

> I think there's another album i don't have.

        There are two and a half, the first one being a self-titled 10" or
CDEP. It's not brilliant and if you have both _Spine of God_ and
_25... Tab_ you have better versions of all but two of the
(six) songs. The other two are good but not great.

        _25... Tab_ is a matter of taste. If you like random formless jams
around one riff you'll love this, particularly the 32-minute opener
`Tab...' which contains psychedelic ranting galore, vocals and hell,
everything else too, through delay pedals and just general swirling
clouds of chaos. The rest is the same but not so extreme except that
there's the class psych number `Longhair' hiding in the middle and the
original version of `Tractor' making a secret appearance at the end.

        Then there's _God Says No_, the one we're actually asking about.

> I think "Silver future" is a new song (seen it on Napster). If it is a song
> from the new album, it's a good sign - it's a great song, in the vein of
> "Dopes" (the song), a bit less jammy but still great.
>
> MM has also covered lots of older stuff, including Hawkwind (I think "Silver
> machine", "Urban guerilla" and another song I didn't know) and "Kick out the
> jams" - they regularly do KOTJ on their shows, and it's one of the
> highlights. If you're interested, this stuff is available on Napster (it's
> not on any official CD that I know of).

        KOTJ was one of the extra tracks on the frist version of the
`Spacelord' single. Yours,
                           Jon

--
     Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)       jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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        "There's nothin' more dangerous than a wounded mosquito."