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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
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Of Natural History
Mimicry Records
Release: 11/02/2004
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Rated:
Review by:
Chris Barber
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Who is Sleepytime Gorilla Museum? The only way to answer this question is to say they are a bunch of freaks with uncanny originality, amazing musical knowledge, and the ultimate desire to be completely different from everything that is circulating through the musical world right now.
Of Natural History is definitely the strangest collection of music and sounds I have ever heard. There is no real way to compare the music to anything else out there, except to call it an evil circus opera. The intensity almost hurts, and the variety of strange homemade percussion instruments that blast throughout this album make you wonder if you ever want to listen to a standard four piece rock group again. And with all this going on they seem to find the best ways to manipulate standard time signatures to make the music sound that much more out there.
But don't get your hopes completely up yet. There are things about this album that all but ruin it.
It seems as though there is a theme in most of my reviews that decides if an album receives a good or a bad review. This theme is vocal quality, and this is where Of Natural History loses some serious points. Most of the time on this album, with the exception of track three, "Phthisis" (hands down the best song on the album), I found myself reminded of David Bowie in white leather pants, singing to a baby in a crystal ball. If you've never seen the movie Labyrinth this won't make much sense to you, but let's just say it was a pretty horrible flick. The only other way to describe the vocals is to think of The Phantom of The Opera, only more evil, and with some screaming and other nonsense thrown in. I will admit there are some songs with vocals that are somewhat tolerable, but those songs are few and far between.
If I could change one thing about this album, besides the vocals, it would be to get rid of all the boring pointless crap that starts off each and every song, and just get to the music. If you do buy this album, skip through the first minute and a half of every track and it will be much more enjoyable.
All in all, Of Natural History has me torn. There are parts I love and there are parts I hate. Musically, this is probably one of the most innovative albums ever made. The theme of this album is great, the cover art and information is strangely interesting. I just wish I could get a copy with the vocal tracks taken off. |
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