KID'S STUFF

What happened to this band? What happened to them after their amazing debut? While it's true that the band was able to produce some quality music after their first album I don't think anyone expected something like this to come from the group. But what group are we talking about now? None of the band members who saw the light of First Base are even on the album! Who decided to take the band's name and wipe it's face in the clay dirt of the baseball diamond? Truth be told, this is simply an album that you should avoid - it has nothing to do with the band that was once so great. I don't think that the album was ever even remastered onto CD, it's that avoidable.

This is not simply an attack without warrant however, there are fundamental problems with this album. First off - yes, the band members are all different. Whatever record label decided to let the people use the band's name is beyond me. Secondly - While even going into their 4th album the band was starting to lose their progressive feel, and on this album it's gone completely! This is not a prog album, heck it's barely even a rock album. What we have here is a mix of clicky riffs mixed with disco and R&B to make something really not worth listening to. If you buy this album expecting heavy prog, boy you're far off. Even the new singer, Ellie Hope (and ironic name for the band, actually) while not a bad singer should definitely have stuck to not trying to fill Jenny Haan's shoes. While Jenny was a kind of wild female-Geddy-Lee-Mixed-with-Joplin powerhouse this new singer is more or less your standard blues act. Now that would have been okay if not for the instrumental sections. Where the band used to have wonderful Zep inspired riff-based songs such as the marvelous Wells Fargo this one has riffs that flounder to even be classified as a good riff as evident when the needle hits the grooves on the opening Oh! Dear What A Shame (another ironic title).

There is unfortunately nothing to redeem the album, even the attempt at an emotional thrill ride such as the reflective Welcome To The Show fails to impress. Why oh why? Perhaps the best song on the album is the instrumental Nickelodeon which is more or less an uninspired version of Caught At The Plate from their previous album - at least that's how it comes off.

This one is very easy to give a 1 star to. Nothing to like about this album and one seriously has to question the moral standards of people who can take the name of an excellent band and drag it like they've done here. 1 star, the final end (although they'd reunite sometime later) to a career that started off wonderfully. Go buy First Base and just ignore the fact that this disc even came out.

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