Review Summary: Messy yet entertaining, like an outtake collection
Nearly three decades into his career, musical madman JG Thirlwell finally created his magnum opus with his ninth full-length
Foetus effort
Hide. That record was a mind-boggling epic that combined practically everything that made Foetus fun to listen to, which begged the question: How was Thirlwell going to follow it?
Soak, the tenth Foetus studio album, has been described as the “satellite” album for Hide, a companion piece, essentially. This may imply that it’s just as good, if not better than
Hide, but this is, unfortunately, untrue. In all honesty,
Soak feels almost like a collection of session outtakes than a cohesive album. The tracks don’t flow well with each other, feeling more messy than it really should be. Not to say that it doesn’t shine in moments, although.
“Kamikaze” opens in a similar way “Paper Slippers” from
Hide; It starts off as a slow-paced piano ballad. The track takes the point of view of a pilot who is in the middle of warfare, contemplating on performing a kamikaze attack. About halfway through the track, a steady, lurching bassline creeps into the track, and with a slick
pop, marching drums and strings come into the mix. The piano and drums stop, leaving the string section to build upon one another and forming a textured pathway into the latter portion of the song, an epic blow-out fit with industrial backbeats, overwhelming horns, and a bassline so dirty you would want to take a bath after hearing it.
Tracks like “Warm Leatherette” and “Halloween/Turbulence” show off the more intense aspects of the record. When Thirlwell greedily groans
“warm leatherette” in his demonically deep voice, he sounds like he’s a wild animal out for blood, and the use of opera singer Abby Fischer’s vocals on “Halloween/Turbulence” adds an extra layer of pure fear to the track. While good tracks like these can be found scattered throughout the album, many examples of unneeded songs are apparent on the record, also.
The biggest example could evidently be the Secret Chiefs 3 remix of “Cosmetics”. In the remix, the bass is distorted and amplified to an annoying maximum. The remix also includes the occasional unnecessarily added sound effect. In the end, the track feels tacked on to the album more than anything else, and it really does not fit in with the rest of the album.
Soak is a partially disappointing release by Foetus that feels more like a messy collection of outtakes than a concise full-length effort. While the occasional stand out is present on the record, the albums overall flow keeps it from being yet another standout in the Foetus catalogue. For fans of Foetus,
Soak is an interesting concept, but for any newcomers,
Soak is not the best place to start.
