Review Summary: The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion is rather like the six-billionth World Citizen, struggling to find his identity and place in this world.
Dredg’s second album, El Cielo, was truly a superlative album and, I think, will never be supplanted as dredg’s magnum opus. This is because, in 2001 and 2002, dredg were relatively unknown and thus playing and recording and writing music solely for themselves and their small, encouraging, enthusiastic audience. But this audience grew exponentially after dredg released Catch Without Arms, an effort which introduced an entirely fresh, poppy sound to the group's repertoire, and an approach into the mainstream which many fans agree was unfortunate. The albatross that many bands wear is their own popularity. This holds true for dredg: it seems to this reviewer that they have stopped writing music for themselves and have begun writing for their critics. Their fans, the ultimate critics, became petulant, disappointed, and altogether hopeless with their new sound and after the leak of the execrable track Saviour, with the direction in which they were evidently going. The fans, in short, wanted a return to the sonic landscapes and skylines of El Cielo.
Now, in the summer of 2009, dredg, having obviously heeded the disapproval of their Catch Without Arms sound, have released their fourth studio album, titled The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, which exemplifies an attempted return to their grander, infinitely more creative past, rendering the leaked track Saviour a sort of red herring. But whereas El Cielo was subtle, confident in its intent, and utterly unselfconscious, The Delusion is for the most part the opposite. Even though they have returned to the style of El Cielo, they have done so out of their fans’ desire, and one gets the impression that this album is not as natural or sincere or focused as El Cielo...perhaps El Cielo’s meretricious, self-conscious twin.
But The Delusion is not a bad album. In fact, it's a good album, perhaps even great, and for most everyone has exceeded all expectations, and may even make a few Best of the Year lists. It contains eighteen tracks, four of which are instrumentals and another four of which are, like the brushstrokes found on El Cielo, brief interludes or stanzas. Overall, most of the songs are great, including arguably one of the best songs the band has ever written, but barring a few such as the aforementioned Saviour which is their utter worst. But like Catch Without Arms, its second half is decidedly weaker than its first. And despite the obvious El Cielo similarities, there are also faint traces of Leitmotif and Catch Without Arms interspersed throughout the album. But I must stress that much of the album is an entirely new sound. For example, piano plays a much larger role here than it does on previous albums. The keyboard riff on Information is actually the same riff played on the Waterborne soundtrack. This doesn’t bother me that much, but it may annoy some. Interesting bass lines are heard on just about every track. In fact, the bass work is my favorite part of the album. The vocals excel as expected. The guitar, however, seems to have taken a step back in order for the other instruments to take a step forward, which I think is for the best. (The quality of the guitar work is great, but its presence has been lessened.) And this album is dredg’s darkest work yet.
In conclusion, The Delusion is great; certainly better than Catch Without Arms, but not quite as good as El Cielo.
According to the band, The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion was inspired by Salman Rushdie’s essay, “Imagine No Heaven,” and the lyrics and theme reflect this inspiration. But I cannot help but to compare this album with the subject of Rushdie’s essay, because I think The Delusion is rather like the six-billionth World Citizen, struggling to find his identity and place in this world.
