Review Summary: "Oh, we're in Bucketheadland. Neat-o, Neat-o"-Bootsy Collins on Bucketheadland
Buckethead is probably one of the most stylistically diverse guitarists on the market today. He plays a combination of styles that can't be beat. Hell, even early Buckethead was pretty different than any other guitarists on the market at the time. Granted, he was more guitar oriented than most of his later works, but he played a little more tastefully than most on the market. Bucketheadland wasn't overloaded with guitar in the way Yngwie Malmsteen does his music. He sprinkled ripping solos at random points in the album. Some may complain about the lack of guitar on this but it should be considered an artistic achievement. I think this can be considered the first album ever to be 70% samples, 30% guitar playing. When there is guitar playing, it's usually in the form of long complex solos or structured songs. The track
Park Theme for instance, is basically an earleir version of one of Buckethead's most popular tracks and it's one of the few full length songs on this. As a full length song, it holds the interest more than his solos do, but the soloing at the end of the track is incredible.
Okay, so some of the solos by Buckethead are incredibly same-y. He plays the same chromatic scales and 8-finger tapping licks he's been doing for years now. They shred beyond belief, but it sounds too sterile and robotic. The doversoty of playing comes in the riffs. Buckethead plays traditional metal riffs mixed in with some funk riffs and some ballad-esque songs. Despite how much diversity theew is, the riffs maintain something important; catchiness. One day you'll find yourself humming the main guitar parts of
Park Theme and
Home Run Derby and you'll instantly recognize who's playing it. Even the ballad
I Love My Parents is pretty unforgettable. Anything else i could say about the guitar is that there isn't enough of it. This is only a minor complaint because it blends in perfectly with the samples.
Speaking of samples, this album has a lot of them. If you've memorized your movies, you'll recognize bits and pieces of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Giant Robot and Johnny Sokko, Willy Wonka, and even the rhythm track to the Friday The 13th theme on the all out soloing of
Oh Jeez'.... The samples are used as an artistic piece among rhythm tracks to tell the concept of Buckethead's amusement park, Bucketheadland. This is truly one of the best albums when it comes to telling it's story without descending too much into the music. The only real issue i have with the album is the recording. The guitar is obviously the focal point when it comes to instrumentation mixing but the bass and drums sound too feeble and the supposed keyboards on this are buried to the point of not hearing anything. It's a real shame too ecause funk legend Bootsy Collins plays on this record.
Overall, Bucketheadland is truly one of a kind. No other album is truly like it. It's the perfect balance of guitars, samples and storytelling all rolled into one package. There's also a pretty forgettable remix disc to go with this, but if you're interested in checking that out that's your deal. Despite a bad mixing process, the concept and music make up for that. Truly a genius debut album.
