Review Summary: Continuing where he left off at "Random Album Title", put leaving so many gaps in the middle.
Niagra Falls born Joel Zimmerman, aka "deadmau5", is in no doubt a talented artist and producer. With the magic essence that was "Get Scraped", changing to an even better route with "Random Album Title", the mau5 heads for the same progressive house approach as he did in RAT, but leaving many gaps in the middle, gaps unfilled with the talent that listeners heard in RAT. "For Lack of a Better Name" is a good album, but what makes it a good album is only those once-in-a-while good songs.
The opener, "FML" is much like the Random Album Title opener, "Sometimes, Things Get, whatever. A thrilling, deep, minimal opener with a good beat and a hook that gets the heart going and the fists pumping. "Moar Ghosts n Stuff", the sequel(in this case, prequel), to Ghosts n Stuff is a good Techno House jam, with hypnotic bass and an awesome organ hook with blasts of synths, definitely putting the original to shame in terms of better quality and a much better atmosphere.
"Ghosts n Stuff" is far from bad, but also far from good, with a use of Rob's Vocals seeming to bring no emotion to the song considering they are very bland. It's the middle songs of the album that are the worst. "Hi Friend" is the worst song on the album, with unfitting vocals of a rapper we have never heard of before and just an annoying repetitive hook. "Bot", "Word Problems" and "Soma" are all very repetitive, especially those drums and a small minimal hook which is basically what most of these songs are, going for the minimal approach was failed here. "Lack of a Better Name" isn't that bad, but still falls into the same kind of repetitive funk which the past three tracks did. A magical flute and a good arrangement of synths at some parts of the song hold it up from them though. "The 16th Hour" lacks serious potential, with drums very familiar from other songs NOT on this album. "Strobe" is the BEST song on the album, with a killer intro and just a killer dance beat, as good as it may be, it only ALMOST makes up for the disappointment before.
"For Lack of a Better Name" can be enjoyed to an extent, it's just all the things that are missing.
Recommended tracks:
FML
Moar Ghosts n Stuff
Strobe
