I've had the urge to start listening to albums again; It lead me to try Toadies's Hell Below / Stars Above.
Listening to the first track was not inspiring. Plane Crash, forgive the vague descriptions, almost felt like party pop music. It's too heavy for most pop, and most wouldn't try dancing to it, but it still feels free of the grit that makes the Toadies one of my all time favorites. Luckily Push The Hand comes along to save the day. Here's a track with the Lisa Umbarger bass lines that I crave. A song with excellent builds, and we all know how I feel about a good build. Little Sin drives home the dichotomy of the album for me. It returns to the pop sounds of Plane Crash, but without trying to be party anthem. Does the fourth track swing us back into a more ferocious territory, maintaining the pop / rock alternating? No. It gets weirder. A weird pop chant that descends into noise. WTF Toadies? Finally we're at Heel. This is the menacing sound and imagery of a Toadies. If weren't for some weak lyrical repetition the album would be worth it for this song alone, but as is it still falls short of Rubberneck.
There are seven more tracks, and I won't review them each but to say the album continues to jump from intensely menacing to desperately trying to get radio play. This is an album worth having but knowing in advance Rubberneck makes a better follow up album to Hell Below / Stars Above than the other way around.
Soundtrack: Toadies - Sweetness
Cat: Futon Warming
