MUTINY UP MY SLEEVE

Having shown a greater maturity with their second album and conquering their country, Webster set out to invade the planet with yet another controversial album title: Mutiny Up My Sleeve (but which sleeve are they talking about, you my wonder ;-) and this album was another step to greatness. By this time, the group was in full swing and churning out the hits and classics with an impressive regularity and this album would unleash another half dozen.

Webster was clearly one of the most cherished bands on the home front and not one single house party was complete without this album being played at least once during the night. This was no doubt due to the presence of THE best party track ever written: the aptly titled The Party, which was sung out by almost every teen from the first crowd yells until the last air-guitar cord mimed. Often this was played by the observing DJ (sometimes your truly ;-) as soon as the party menaced to become soft, and within the first two seconds of the start of this rack, all hell had broken loose, some dozen brews downed and so many more instantly opened and sacrificed on the honor of Webster. This track has everything to please everyone, from downright sex-incensed lyrics to fabulous guitars solos to impressive vocals (the utmost thing was to able to manage to come as close to Mitchell incredible word delivery without taking a breath), to constantly shifting rhythms and dizzying performances from the whole group.

But to limit Mutiny to this sole track would be insulting it: Lip Service is a real shocker and a superb intro to the album (and a solid proposed remedy to the album title ;-), while Astonish me is one of those superb slower tracks that Webster deals so well with. The album is rounded up by the now-habitual Moon track and this one is well within the line of its predecessors and two other tracks that are your average Webster tunes. Water Me Down is yet another cool track while only a track of Waterline's quality can hold up next to the encumbering 6-min The Party.

Again not the perfect album, but this was about as good as one could expect to crack the planet open. Alas for some reasons, this was not to happen, which probably has as much to do with the proverbial lack of self-confidence of Canadians in regards with their southern neighbors, but maybe also that south of the border no-one wanted one more Canadian band on the circuit. Far-fetched? Not so sure! Nevertheless yet another superb killer of an album that every progheads should lay at least an ear on. Sadly (and hopefully momentarily), this album seems to be harder to come by than others from Max.