Review Summary: If you have any strong feelings about this album, be they positive or negative, consider that time wasted.
Let’s get one thing straight: I consider myself a fan of Powerman 5000. Ever since I first heard “When Worlds Collide” while playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 for my Dreamcast, I’ve had an affinity for Spider One’s science fiction-infused brand of hard rock. That’s what makes it so painful to be so apathetic to it now. I wasn’t even aware “Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere” had been released until I chanced upon it at Best Buy. That’s not what you want your fans saying.
“Somewhere. . .”, Powerman 5000’s seventh album, isn’t even that bad of an album. The problem is, it isn’t that good, either. It exists in a state of limbo where you’re aware there’s music playing, but your mind’s on something else. It grinds along through its eleven tracks proudly displaying its hard rock influences, but they’re eleven tracks you’ve heard before in other forms. Lead single “V Is For Vampire” sounds like it would be perfectly at home on the group’s fifth album, “Transform”, sandwiched between tracks with more inventive wordplay.
The album does have some moments sprinkled throughout that make you think twice about pressing the stop button on your stereo. Album closer “Horror Show” harkens back to the more primal days of Powerman 5000 before breakout album “Tonight The Stars Revolt!” with a greater focus on the rhythm section of Powerman 5000. “Make Us Insane” features a chugging guitar riff and enough little sonic tricks to keep you interested, and would fit in well with some of Powerman 5000’s catchier songs, should you decide to make yourself a PM5k mix tape. “Super Villain” does have a serviceable electro-influenced beat to it and you’ll probably find your feet tapping idly to it. At least until Spider’s awkward rapped verse reminds you that if you listen to Powerman 5000, you’ve probably got a half-dozen CDs in your collection that do it with more conviction.
That’s the feeling you’ll get while listening to this CD. The whole outfit sounds tired, with Spider offering up bland lyrics encouraging you to do your thing or blow up, all half-growled/half-whispered over background noise that sounds like something
Julien-K left on the cutting room floor. There’s little variety to the tracks on offer; three separate tracks clock in at exactly 3:45, and two of them (“Super Villain” and “Make Us Insane”) do begin to sound remarkably similar. For a band that seemed to have its niche carved out for it in 1999, there’s not a whole lot to recommend this in 2009.
In the end, “Somewhere On The Other Side of Nowhere” is a surprisingly fitting title for this album, because once you’ve heard it, it’ll find its place somewhere in the pile of your CDs that you never really get the desire to replay. Spider, you’ve been in the game for 18 years now. Impress us, astound us, confuse us, confound us, but please don’t bore us like this.
