ANCHOR DROPS

Umphrey's McGee seems to have a small but very loyal following here on PA. This album weighs on at 4.31 on 16 ratings prior to mine but I am afraid I am going to have to be the voice of dissent. Otherwise, people may be duped into buying this album thinking they are getting a good album for their prog / Jazz Fusion tastes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you are a Phish or Grateful Dead fan, then by all means check this out. Those bands do nothing for me and certainly do not in the slightest scratch my prog itch. And while I enjoy a band like Return to Forever, a band that can legitimately be included in a prog discussion even though their intent is to play jazz, UM cannot make that same claim. UM is good at what they are trying to do: be a jam band that is mainly guitar oriented and has plenty of keys filling in. But their sound is just hollow to me and does not fill up the speakers with any type of lush sound that you find in prog. It all just seems stripped down and the vocals have that indie 90's feel that reminds me of Pavement, a band that did not trip my trigger either. They write some decent melodies but nothing that gets my heart rate up. And I think it is a stretch to even put them in Jazz Rock/Fusion. I don't get that feel at all so that really shoots down how they got on the site in the first place.

These are the type of albums that rankle me because I get duped into buying them due to glowing reviews on prog sites. I cringe every time I see it with my CDs and it reminds me why I have to be a lot more selective since there is so much stuff out there to buy. In this case, my money could have gone to hundreds of other titles more suited to my taste. This is certainly among the bottom ranking CDs I have purchased since my reintroduction to prog, so 1 star is my ranking.