A Brief Bio: Though still relativley unkown, you've probably heard a song or two by Moist, a band hailing from Toronto, Ontario, and featuring the now-solo artist David Usher featuring his distinctive, almost adolescent voice, adolescent meaning often breaking octaves. Starting in the early 90's, they went into the undergroud rock scene that was tunnling up Toronto like no-ones buisness. Moist had a place beside such now-famous acts as Our Lady Peace and the like. Signing to Capitol records in 1993, their career had started to take flight. Releasing their first album, Silver, in 1994, they had a firm base of fans that latched onto them, had some mild radio play and some medium sized arenas to fill. But their sophomore release, Creature, is often regarded as their best work. With such undoubtedly catchy songs as Resurection, Moist defined their sound to fit their own, complete with piano solos and strings.
Moist:
David Usher: Vocals
Mark Makoway: Guitars
Kevin Young: Keyboards
Jeff Pearce: Bass
Paul Wilcox: Drums
The Album:
Through their distinctive tone of voice, instrumentations and melody, Moist have a slightly different sound, though still rock based. On the first song, Hate, Moist add soft drums and almost jazzy piano, a couple bass patterns and a whispering Usher, which erupts into a fantastic eruption of guitars, bass and drums, with David screaming like a 15 year old boy about a love turned to hate. Gradually, the song repeats itself, until it's dramatic climax with an echoing guitar, and a fainting drum pattern. The next great song is Resurection, a pretty dramatic piece with a familiar guitar pattern. Probably the best choice for a single, because it represents the album really good, blending inteligent guitar riffs, heavy bass, simplistic drums and a squaling (not in a bad way) Usher, gradually going into a blus-ey piano riff, and eventually a solo, which is simple but nice to listen to.
Leave It Alone is a slower song, like Hate, but has a different mood to it. Taking on an almost ballad-like toll, Moist introduces itself to slower melodies, faint strings, calming guitars and a killer chorus with Usher making a good singing performance, with lyrics about, well, leaving your problems alone. Another very nice and suitable solo conclude the song, and it's onto a Creature. The title track starts with a royal sounding trumpet and leads into a dark riff with faint vocals and a steady drum beat. The chorus kicks in, and adds distortion and backing vocals to Usher's wailing. A killer solo comes in, and it repeats itself. Disco Days is a piano anthem, with sad chords and Usher sounding every bit as painful as the piano. Jazzy verses and sad lyrics are the driver of this song, which leads into a pretty decent chorus, with the band behind the two main performers. This song keeps you interest, and is pretty relaxing as well. Tangerine adds string to the bundle, which makes it the best track. The heavy guitar, bass and drum backing the violin, leading into a chorus with an almost rapping Usher over minor chords, steady beats and a really suitable backing vocals part. Enter the violin again, and repeat. Easily a good contender for the best song, as it's really a brilliantly played out song complete with a piano lead breakdown, and eventually a hard-hitting bridge.
Better Than You is another distinctive guitar riff, with piano and eventually a soft Usher entering, signalling the entrance of the chorus, with Usher epically changing "And Everyone, And Everyone is better than You". A nice little song with a killer chorus makes this worth listening to. It's over too quick, as it could easily be longer. Ophelia is the first song I heard by Moist, and is actually not as good as I used to think. It's a relativley harder song, which really isn't Moist's strongest point. Usher's voice is actually rather annoying, except in the acceptable chorus with a familiar guitar chord sequence. Gasoline is the finale, and is rather pretty and soft, with only a guitar and Usher's voice at the begining, but entering into a slow moving little piece that can keep your interest for three minutes and ten seconds.
Overall, this album is definitly worth purchasing, especially for a small fee of $9.00 canadian, which is what I ended up paying. A rather sad mood is the setting of the album, which is rather depressing but nice to listen to at the same time. The highlight tracks are the slower ones, and the faster ones are just as likeable. A great rock group, and I highly suggest looking into them.
Overall: 82%, 4/5. B+
