It's Easy to Sing but You Just Keep on Humming Along

The Melvins - A Senile Animal

Ipecac; 2006

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Loud. Sludgy but not plodding at all. A LOT of vocal harmony, in that style reminiscent of Alice in Chains, which is great. These riffs are killer. These songs bleed into one another, fusing together the whole album as one big piece.

At first, everything sounds the same. It's very layered. But the differences throughout the album actually pull it together - tempo, mostly, as well as mood.

Two sets of drums cause an overdose in the rythym department at times, and it's almost unfortunate that they weren't recorded better. For all the percussion, very little stereo mixing was used, and the recordings sound like they came from one atmospheric mic instead of a ton of carefully placed drum mics. At first, I didn't like this, but now I agree with the production choice. It just adds to the muddiness.

There's a fusion here. Songs lead into other songs, the album has moods. It gets faster and more angry and sort of confused, but takes breaks, not to calm down, but more to reflect. It ends up being tired at the end, it seems to have worn itself out for all the energy it started with.

If you can handle non-mainstream rock with wild production and an overall feel, totally listen to this album.