Review Summary: Chevelle continues their resurgence back into the hard rock world.
Chevelle has been a leading hard rock force for a while now. But they'd also disappeared into relative obscurity for a little bit and become not so good (Sci-Fi Crimes, which was indeed a crime). Hats Off to the Bull brought them fully back to the land of the living, especially with the firestarter single "Face to the Floor." You won't find that in this particular joint's lead single--"Take Out the Gunman"--but you will find more of that general stuff.
La Gargola gets off to quite the start with arguably the two best songs on the album--"Ouija Board" and "An Island"--which brings to light the fact that this album has been very well produced, and the guitars are at their best on this album. Not even kidding--instrumentally, this could well be their best album ever. Well, at least when it comes to a few certain tracks anyway. "Jawbreaker" is another example of one of those heavy tracks.
"Take Out the Gunman" is a *very* different type of Chevelle song--one that made me initially concerned they were going back to the road of mediocrity. However, it's grown on me and I can say that while I don't think of it as the best song on the album, I can understand while people are enjoying it as much as they are. "Hunter Eats Hunter" tends to drone on a little bit, and thus does not have the same effect as some of the other heavy tracks at all. In other words, the two pre-release singles are probably my two least favorite tracks.
A very interesting song called "One Ocean" comes up next. Chevelle has never been that particularly good at ballads--and they've hardly ever done them either ("Panic Prone" is their most popular, though I never got into it). But here, they pull it off flawlessly and create arguably the best track on the album. This will most likely be the 3rd single--besides, it is rather radio-friendly.
The last four songs on the album aren't quite as noteworthy. "Choking Game" and "The Damned" are both interesting songs, at least; though they sound quite similar to what we've already heard earlier on the album. "The Damned," though, does stick around just a little bit more. "Twinge" pretty much sinks to the ground as an album closer--although that really should be no big surprise, since aside from "Clones," Chevelle's never been really good at album closers.
On this album, Chevelle offers a few of their best songs ever. As a whole, it don't quite quite reach the ranks of Wonder What's Next--though probably nothing ever will, so they should be pretty content with settling for their second best album ever.
