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Clouds, "Legendary Demo"
While some of this album is fun, there is not enough fun to go around. Many of the songs are boring, trying to counter a lack of imagination with volume. Listening to this album does get my foot tapping but so do most bar room blues and covers bands. There is nothing to engage with; I am not yearning for anything particularly intellectual but something more than rehashing the same blues scales and vocal histrionics would be nice.
Hydra Head
Two things about this album irritate me and both of them center on Andy McGrath. The first being his overworked guitar playing which, although showing off that he has been practicing his scales, is far from exciting. Luckily it is tempered somewhat by the songs' punkish beats and some nods towards classic Black Flag riffing such as on "Live for it Now." The second thing that irritates me is the vocals as McGrath sounds too cartoonish too much of the time, the most criminal instance being his screaming on "Magic Hater." It's a shame because his vocals sound great on certain parts of certain songs but unfortunately these moments are too rare to redeem him in my ears. One song that bucks all the above trends is "Mountain Jim," which has some great guitar playing on it, coupled with a strong rhythm section. It is not going to set the world ablaze with its originality but it certainly holds its head high above the other songs on Legendary Demo.
Bizarrely, half the disc is taken up with "Quartulli Dub," a very long instrumental jam that quickly becomes an exercise in tedium. As this is such a substantial part of the album, I am surprised that it is so unengaging. The first three minutes are enthralling purely because the music is so different from the rest of the album, instead of the bluesy rock and punk of the preceding songs "Quartulli Dub" is, as the name suggests, far more indebted to reggae and dub. The novelty soon wears off and the self-indulgence becomes too much for me, especially the soulless saxophone solos. If "Quartulli Dub" was a quarter of the length and dropped the saxophone it would be a far better piece of music but at 20 minutes, Clouds are taking the piss.
There are too many pedestrian generic rock songs and far too many moments of excitement to make this album anything less than a chore to listen to. Bearing in mind that some of the best bits are nestled within songs, it is not an option to just program in the tracks I like or rip them to mp3. When it is too much of an effort to listen to a full song to hear the couple of nice guitar licks it contains, it is a sign that perhaps Legendary Demo is not quite as legendary as it makes out.
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