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Review Summary: Chuckles & No Quality Control “Another Tribe”, the opening track to Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy, is such a fitting representation of the album as a whole that it’s almost comical. The song is a mess, but still quirky and enjoyable in its own weird way. It begins with an abrupt burst of dark synths, almost as if you downloaded a radio rip of the song that edited out radio banter while the beginning of the song started playing. (It’s also probably worth noting that this track has the most tasteful use of synths on this entire album) The synths eventually fade and take a backseat to Gavin’s vocals, which dominate the entire song. While not the strongest performance of his career, his vocals are more than competent on this track. If this song were to be included on any other of dredg’s albums, it would’ve been dismissed as filler. On Chuckles, it’s a highlight; taking the strongest elements of the album and meshing it together to create a catchy “dark pop” track.
There are other highlights on the album, such as the Cure-esque “The Thought Of Losing You”, the chilled-out ballad “The Ornament”, and “Upon Returning”, which is the only track on the album that wouldn’t have seemed out-of-place on either of their last two LPs. All of the aforementioned tracks are insanely catchy, and truthfully, Gavin sounds quite good throughout (almost) this entire album. Many fans have said that this album sounds more convincing as a Gavin Hayes solo album rather than a dredg album, and that is true. He doesn’t have one specific performance on here that stands out as being particularly impressive, but his vocals are pretty consistently solid throughout. (His lyrics, unfortunately, are consistently negligible throughout.)
With all that being said, the low points of the album are so humiliating that, in the end, you’ll likely end up associating this release with the bad tracks than the good ones. “The Tent” is easily in the top 5 worst songs I’ve heard this year. Completely lifeless and utterly useless, the track plods along with a guitar part that sounds like it was recorded on the spot to soundtrack a budget-less porno flick. And, uh, well, not much else other than that. It almost sounds as if they wanted this track to have a minimalistic, atmospheric feel, and in which case, they failed miserably. The song’s verses – the most tolerable part of the song - are plagued when Gavin’s voice tries to creep a little too high into the upper register, and the song is unfortunately brought down even further by one of the most repetitive, banal, irritating choruses in recent memory.
Following this track is the equally-as-useless “Somebody Is Laughing”. The trilogy of suck is then rounded out with Down Without a Fight, a song featuring an absolutely horrendous circus-y synth line that sounds underproduced and distracts from any other aspect of the song. This is also one of the few songs on the album in which Gavin’s vocals are not front and center, as the synth line completely overpowers them.
Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy has been almost unanimously panned by their fanbase, and the hate is understandable. While this album may not be completely devoid of highlights (some of which I find myself constantly coming back to), it’s something that will probably age like milk left on the counter. Dredg have stated in interviews that this album was a one-off departure record, and could’ve been released as a “dredg & Dan The Automator” album. (I also find it ironic that a producer was given so much credit for the creation of this album, considering that a number of tracks here don’t exactly sound like final mixes.) While I applaud dredg for attempting something different, it is a step back in nearly every department and comes across as a failed experiment more than anything else. Once they release the inevitable “return to form” record, Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy will likely become one of two things: An afterthought, or an irremovable stain on their career that marked their downfall. Nice try anyway, dredg.
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Album Rating: 3.5
First review, finally. I wrote a few others and scrapped them but i felt pretty good about this one. plz give constructive criticism n stuf, kthx.
inb4ratingshouldbelower (although, to be fair, it's more a light 3. just narrowly edging away from a 2.5)
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thanks for the review, i think people have taken dredg's foray into poppier shit too seriously- remember this is the same badn that bruoght us 3 great and deep albums in cielo pariah and catch, theyre up to a little more than were giving them credit- even their deepest songs sound almsot shallow and light (zebraskin [one of my personal favorites], same ol road, etc)
but, because i trust yall at this site so much, im going to stream simple math again instead of this one again haha
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You're going to get this a lot, but I'll start:
Why is this good???!
You say that one of the album's best songs would have been filer elsewhere.
You say the lyrics are negligible.
One of the Top 5 Worst Songs you've heard this year is on this.
You say that their atmosphere "fails miserably".
You say the hate is justified, and that it will age badly.
Your last line is, "Nice try."
Like... seriously? How does any of this constitute "good". Your review should offer points to back up your analysis, your opinion, most importantly, and I'm very confused as to how you offer these points and come to your conclusion. It makes little sense.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
i think people have taken dredg's foray into poppier shit too seriously
what does this even mean? lots and lots of people loved CWA and Pariah. the reason people hate this isn't because it's poppy at all. it's because it's empty.
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wtf this review
Edit: I actually had something useful to say but Eric stole it so all i'm left with is insults
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Sowing's soundoff is pretty much spot-on. I recommend we all read that.
And make him staff. / owner of the site
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The best thing about this album is Martine's soundoff
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ya it's epic
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haha i didn't see that yeah thats amazing
| | | Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off
Review ain't bad...
Something tells me that your writing would be stronger if you toned down the conversational tone a tad. By all
means don't get rid of it completely, but there are parts in this review where it gets in the way of the flow and the
strength of your writing. For example
"And, uh, well, not much else other than that."
The sentence doesn't even need to be there, and, for me at least, the "uh" just makes it read ameuturistic. (not a
real word).
Also in case you haven't heard yet, it seems like your arguing for a 2 instead of a 3, which more than anything really
brings the review down. But hey, for a first, it's pretty good, I mean you got most of the basics and shit down. So I'll
POS it, just because I'm such a nice guy :P.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Why is this good???!
I would consider it more "passable" than "good". I would say the same for a number of other albums i've rated 3, although like i said in my first comment, i was kinda torn between a 2.5 and a 3 rating for this. The gap between "average" and "good" is fairly broad in my eyes.
You say that one of the album's best songs would have been filer elsewhere.
Different style, different standards.
One of the Top 5 Worst Songs you've heard this year is on this.
Yes, but at the same time, Another Tribe, Upon Returning, and Thought of Losing You have all become serious guilty pleasures and have been racking up numerous plays on my ipod during the last couple of weeks.
You say that their atmosphere "fails miserably".
Yes, on that particular track. There aren't many tracks on here that i feel aim to even establish an atmosphere in the first place.
You say the hate is justified, and that it will age badly.
You say the lyrics are negligible.
Your last line is, "Nice try."
Like... seriously? How does any of this constitute "good". Your review should offer points to back up your analysis, your opinion, most importantly, and I'm very confused as to how you offer these points and come to your conclusion. It makes little sense.
You have a point with all of this. Note taken. Will definitely consider lowering the score down to a 2.5. Again, like i said, Sputnik's association with 2.5 for "average" and 3 for "good" has always kinda thrown my rating of albums off.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
@letsgofishing Thanks. Will definitely take note of all that.
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Eric is being too harsh with his comments. The content of the review is solid even though it might not exactly match the common perception of the 'good' rating. Don't worry about it, G3N3R1C.
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I disagree. Yes, this is put together rather nicely in some spots-- the writing, grammar, this stuff is essentially fine-- but there's other (more) components of a review.
His points should match an analysis, and here they don't at all. He makes a totally unfounded conclusion based on what are actually some fair (but unrelated) observations.
Either way, I didn't see this was your first! My comments stand, but please don't think I'm trying to be a dick, I'm just trying to help : )
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Eric is being too harsh with his comments.
No he's not. If I had written this I would want exactly what eric had to say rather than "pretty good for a first". How else do you improve?
The content of the review is solid even though it might not exactly match the common perception of the 'good' rating. Don't worry about it, G3N3R1C.
Well that's a pretty big problem when you spend the majority of the review slagging the album off only to call it good. But don't worry about it, Eric has it covered
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
http://i54.tinypic.com/2a7hks6.jpg
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worst review ever
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