Review Summary: Motorpsycho's sixth studio album has a fine selection of hard rock tunes but sadly falls flat towards the end.
Motorpsycho are huge in Norway. Even 30 years since their formation, their albums consistently reach the top 5 in the Norwegian album charts and they have been nominated countless times for a Spellemannprisen, Norway's equivalent of a Grammy, which they've won 3 times throughout their career. This album was released only a couple years after their breakthrough with 1993's Demon Box, which gave them their first Spellemannprisen nomination. However, this album is the one that really gave the band their true breakthrough, finally winning them the award in the Rock category. I can see why, the first 7 tracks are pure gold. However, the album falls down after the grand 'S.T.G', which is one of the best Motorpsycho tracks of all time. The last 3 tracks, 'Manmower', 'Fool's Gold' and 'Nathan Daniel's Tune from Hawaii' are completely unnecessary and I'd even go to the point of saying they bring down the album. I wouldn't mind, but the last two I mentioned are mediocre at best. 'Manmower' is a decent song but would've been better placed earlier in the album. Anyway, enough negativity, let's get into the awesomeness of this album.
This album has plenty of variety, ranging from progressive slow-burners like True Middle to breakneck anthems like Drug Thing. Each individual track has something unique about it, and I would happily tell you about each one but I don't want to bore you, so let's move on. It's consistent originality, even including the last 3 tracks, is what differs this from any other hard rock album from the time. Every song isn't just some boring ditty about love or whatever, each track offers something else to the table and throughout the first 7 tracks I never found myself bored. The music captivated me. Like I mentioned earlier, despite the last 3 tracks being mediocre at best, all 3 of them are completely original. The only problem is that they could've been placed and executed better.
Another great thing about this album is how they also embraced multiple different genres which were on the rise in the underground music scene at the time. As an example, True Middle can easily be identified as a post-rock song, which emerged in the 90's. As another example, the final track 'Nathan Daniel's Tune from Hawaii' is clearly an ambient track, which had a major resurgence in the mid 90's. They got many different elements of what was popular in rock at the time and made it their own. As stated before, their originality is what makes this album so great.
In conclusion, this album is fantastic but falls flat with the last 3 tracks. Despite this, each track offers something original to the album and helps make it unique.
