Scroll down for reviews of the latest from Rhett Miller, Andy Partridge and Menthol.

Spock’s Beard
Snow

(Metalblade)

Release Date: August 27, 2002

www.spocksbeard.com

Progressive rock flourished in a big way during its heyday in the 1970s. Then, artists such as the early Genesis, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer and King Crimson created ambitious musical projects that ran the gamut from orchestral to operatic with the flash of pseudo-classical rock keyboards and guitars. These oft-classically schooled artists married that training with psychedelic and rock influences, creating unusual harmonies, intriguing time signatures, endless solos, and more often than not, overriding “concepts” that dominated albums (and quite often, double-albums).

While always interesting for the listener, many of these projects’ reaches would exceed their grasps. When the fresh, stripped-down, in-your-face sound of punk/new age came to town, the pendulum swung away from the bombastic heady overkill of popular prog rock, and it appeared to fade quickly from the mainstream.

But take heart, nostalgic proggers -- all is not lost. The incredibly talented quintet Spock’s Beard has released their most ambitious prog-rock project yet, a double CD concept album entitled Snow, and it is good enough to take its rightful place among the giants of yore, recalling sounds not heard in many a year (except maybe in Germany, where progressive rock has found a steady following of sorts as a subculture of the metal scene).

Formed in 1992 by brothers Neal and Alan Morse along with drummer Nick D’Virgilio, Spock’s Beard has since forged a solid reputation both live and in the studio for the kind of sounds not heard in decades. With the addition of bassist Dave Meros and spectacular keyboardist Ryo Okumoto, they’ve become the true standard bearers of this modern prog resurgence and Snow is their grandest achievement yet.

Attempting the band’s first concept album, songwriter/creative force Neal Morse challenged himself to write something truly special. It was two years in the making, a process of constant revisions with lyrical and vocal changes made right up to the mixing stage, as Morse aimed to refine and polish, to let the music push the story forward. This evolved into a very personal musical project, and with that came good news and ultimately, some bad news, too (more on that later).

First, the good news: this 2-disc offering is voluminous without sacrificing quality for quantity. In fact, many have lauded it as one of the best CDs in years - a claim that at times seems well-deserved, especially considering the sheer breadth and diversity of its musical elements (to say nothing of how well the music is played). What you get is 26 tracks that span just under two hours worth of music (roughly 115 minutes) to tell the “rock opera” story of Snow, an albino 17-year old with mystical healing powers, able to read souls and intentions.

The young “working-man’s son” travels to New York City, where he develops from an outsider into a modern rock messiah, first gaining a following amongst the city’s wretched refuse, until word spreads to the point where he gets his Time Magazine cover. Ego and unrequited love do him in, but in the end he is redeemed by spirituality, achieving peace through his relationship with God.

This tale of an individual whose talents don’t guarantee happiness until a spiritual bond is made is not overly unique, and resonates with elements of The Who’s Tommy, the storyline of the film Powder, as well as hints of the New Testament every now and again. These familiar tales have paved the way for our latest hero’s rise and fall and rise. Yet while this allegory is at times engaging, the story is secondary to what is accomplished with the music.

Following in the musical footsteps of such concept albums as The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Tommy, and even The Wall, Neal Morse takes bits and pieces from his predecessors and fashions a new epic opus that masterfully weaves repeated thematic lines throughout, taking us on a musical journey that serves up a variety of styles along with several catchy melodies that work well even taken out of context as standalone songs.

There are the impressive yet requisite overtures that open each disk, the first expanding out from the sincere acoustic/folk strains of “Made Alive” into something more recognizably progressive rock, from flugelhorn into pumping bass-driven drums, guitars and Hammond organ/Mellotron, with some saxophones thrown in for good measure. This is accomplished musicianship, both in the writing and the execution, allowing each band member to shine and a very good sample of what’s yet to come.

We revert back to acoustic strains with the infectious “Stranger In A Strange Land,” where we get treated to an emotive Neal Morse vocal delivering the gentle back-story about our hero (and great backing harmonies as well). The song builds in intensity as it melds into the more upbeat “Long Time Suffering,” with instrumental preludes that strongly recall Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

The song itself is as strong as any Gabriel-era Genesis tune, and I daresay could work well on radio even today. Strong harmonies and melody, a haunting slower tempo middle bridge, improvisational solo breaks, and a sparkling a cappella counterpoint section (that sounds very Kevin Gilbert, in the best sense imaginable) -all make this one of the early highlights of the CD. The song ends in a few transitional acoustic chords very reminiscent of “Sparks” from Tommy.

We get the grittier vocal side of Neal Morse with his portrayal of The Knight in “Welcome to NYC,” wherein we get metal mixed with jazz elements, fusing into a piano rendition of those same transitional chords. “Love Beyond Words” is another softer track, featuring a beautiful piano solo that is stronger than the song itself.

“The 39th Street Blues (I’m Sick)” is narrated by The Prostitute with a slightly harder edge, it being a tale of the world weary woman who’s sick of it all, yet still wonders if there’s something that can save her. A horn section is the highlight here.

“Devil Got My Throat” is the song bound to please those looking for a harder-driving sound. This is near-perfection for that sort of sound, a catchy melody and chorus (“The devil’s got my throat / I’m goin’ down / that’s all she wrote”), wonderful guitars and organ dueling in a sort of Yes/ELP-circa Brain Salad Surgery mode and even hints of Kevin Gilbert, King Crimson and Kansas working their way into the over seven-minute mix.

“Open Wide The Flood Gates” is presented as a song in two parts, and each has their particular merits. The longer Part One opens as a pleasant song, a sweet mid-tempo pop ballad of sorts with a jazzy soft guitar lead. The latter part of the song diverges into instrumental Traffic territory, then returns to the chorus with screaming gospel backing vocals, very Dark Side Of The Moon-era Pink Floyd.

Part Two opens up more straightforwardly and is reminiscent of keyboard-driven Kansas at their Wayward Son best, then strays into some brief Yes elements before a big harmonic crescendo.

“Solitary Soul” actually ventures into Crosby, Stills & Nash country with its lovely three-part harmonies and string accents, showing just how versatile Spock’s Beard can be. This soft ballad serves up a wonderful Mellotron lead from Ryo Okumoto.

The first disc wraps with the very catchy anthem “Wind At My Back”, which marries another catchy song with great harmonies and a very high sing-along factor: “You are the wind at my back / You give what I lack /You’re the jewel in my hand / You’re like rain on dry land.”

Disc Two opens with another impressive “Overture,” again playing with the melodic themes already introduced, riffing off them and presenting them in various instrumental styles, while background news reports update us on Snow’s progress

“4th of July” is a group composition and fits well into the overall scheme. This, along with “I’m The Guy” advances our story to the point where ego is tripping up our boy.
“Reflection” is a variant on “Stranger In A Strange Land,” wherein the story of the “albino priest with the psychic mind” is updated.

“Carie” is the woman that captures Snow’s attentions, and this pretty song (with lead vocals from Nick D’Virgilio) manages to capture that delicate love with soft guitars and piano. “Looking For Answers” is the lone Nick D’Virgilio composition here, and it holds its own with the Neal Morse music. This tune of questioning is as catchy as many of the others here, and offers hope that D’Virgilio can contribute more songwriting in the future.

The hard edged “Freak Boy” is a simplistic bit of necessary comeuppance, as Snow is told rather harshly by Carie that he is a revolting, unlovable, magnet for the pathetic. “All Is Vanity” is Snow’s first realization that he is hitting bottom again, all alone, while lovely keyboard work and further instrumentals propels the story forward into the next two songs about his descent “I’m Dying” (featuring heart-wrenching vocals and more thematic repetitions) and a harder reprise of “Freak Boy.”

We are treated next with a very charged rendition of “Devil’s Got My Throat,” which proves just as catchy the second-time around. This leads to the instrumental tour-de-force “Snow’s Night Out,” wherein you get a lot of energy and fancy riffs leading up to a grand performance along the lines of what Keith Emerson once did so well in the aptly titled “Ladies And Gentlemen, Mr. Ryo Okumoto On The Keyboards”.

“I Will Go” is the phoenix-like rise tale of Snow finding redemption through God and it segues the music around full circle again to “Made Alive Again” and then “Wind At My Back.” This lovely harmony-driven ballad gains in intensity like some concert’s encore as Morse thanks the band, etc. It plays out with emotional power and wraps this long yet impressive whirlwind of a musical story.

This two-CD set gets even better with repeated listens. The more you hear it, the more you appreciate the thematic inter-weaving, the subtle accents and musical elements that are not so easily heard the first few times ‘round, along with the virtuoso playing of each of the band’s five members. D’Virgilio is an excellent tight drummer, Alan Morse never overdoes things with his many guitar sounds, Ryo Okumoto gets his great keyboards in and Dave Meros really does channel Chris Squire through his Rickenbacker bass. Neal Morse has achieved what he set out to do - and he does it so very well with expressive vocals and a host of deliciously infectious melodies that run the gamut stylistically from soft to hard.

This band balances the story telling with consummate craft and quality arrangements that emphasize the music first. Well-constructed and masterfully executed, Snow is Spock’s Beard best work, a classic CD-set that will be a treasured magnum opus for years to come. Fans of Yes, ELP, Genesis, King Crimson, The Who, Gentle Giant, Kansas, Marillion, Kevin Gilbert, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum and newer “Neo-Prog” groups like Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, The Flower Kings or Echolyn will savor this lavish concept album.

However, the bad news I alluded to earlier is that Neal Morse has since announced his departure from the band in order that he may better follow “the will of God.” Morse, while writing this epic tale, apparently was going through a similar inner journey, finding redemption in religion that fulfilled him even more than his talents alone did.

Thankfully, he has left us Snow as a chronicle and testament to those musical talents, a coda to a career with a band that is both impressive and sad, a crowning achievement and a bittersweet farewell.

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Rhett Miller
The Instigator

(Elektra Records)

Release Date: September 24, 2002

www.rhettmiller.com

Part of the debate surrounding the Old 97s is that they often seem too country/twang for rock fans, and too pop/rock for strict alt-country fans. With 2001’s Satellite Rides that pendulum was swinging more toward power pop. So when the band took a bit of a break for things like marriages and fatherhood, lead singer and primary creative force Rhett Miller released a solo album that realizes his pop side more fully than ever.

Much of this is explained by the fact that Miller picked Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Macy Gray, Fiona Apple) as producer. Not only has Brion stepped in as producer, he also doubles as multi-instrumentalist, back-up vocal wunderkind, providing an instant one-man backup band along with guest appearances from drummers Jim Keltner and Josh Freese, percussionist Lenny Castro, guitarists David Garza, Robyn Hitchcock and X’s John Doe.

Miller has a high quotient of “lovability” in the way he presents his music, the deceptive simplicity of it, the naïve and nonchalant sounds of the young Texan set loose in the big bad world, capturing those experiences in energetic songs with clever lyrics. There’s always a sort of observational easiness to those lyrics. Here he takes a step away from the country twang of his past, and sidles more comfortably into the realm of strict pop vernacular that is Brion’s stock and trade. The resulting twelve songs are maximally catchy and well, outright lovable.

The twelve songs on The Instigator are all new, many the result of change and some much-needed solitude. At the time of the September 11th attacks, Rhett and then fianceé Erica lived three blocks away from where the Twin Towers stood, and weren’t able to get back into their place for a long time after). More recently, Miller moved to Los Angeles to both live and to record. Before finding a more permanent residence, he spent three weeks living in a top-floor room in a West Hollywood hotel, during which time he finished some older songs and wrote some of the new ones that wound up here.

The upbeat “Our Love” opens the CD in high literary fashion, discussing the letters of Richard Wagner and Franz Kafka to their respective lovers, Mathilde and Milena (their husbands were their friends). Miller is well read and often translates that reading into inspiration for his own work. Here he does a good job capturing the “heart exploding words” of these passions in song.

“This Is What I Do” perhaps is Miller’s subtle and good-natured reply to his critics - plain and simple, he writes a lot of angst-filled love songs: “I’m gonna sing this song forever about a girl that I once knew / And how she is always leaving / this is what I do for a living.” Here it comes across as a charming and forgivable profession.

The first single off the new CD is the emotional “Come Around,” a convincingly faulty thought process of logic inspired by fear: “Am I going to be lonely for the rest of my life / I’m gonna be lonely for the rest of my life / Unless you come around / so come around.”

“Things That Disappear” (co-written with Brion) is another infectious tune, complete with more savvy wordplay: “She had her faculties on her she was honorably carrying on / She don’t wonder anymore ‘cause she knows what love is for / I know it must sound weird/ but all of these things here are things that disappear.”

One of the few ballads on the CD, “World Within A World” again finds the literary Miller at work (this time Don Delillo gets name-checked for his fine novel Underworld), as he explores the quiet need for change and the realization that “there’s a world inside the world that you see.”

“Point Shirley” (again a literate reference, this time Sylvia Plath) uses Jim Keltner and Robyn Hitchcock to great advantage, using the metaphor of the sea to express his friend’s troubles and tribulations, urging him to get out.

Perhaps the catchiest of the catchy is the upbeat love song “Four-Eyed Girl” wherein Miller takes simple lyrics and makes them eloquent (and scores extra points for a mention of Katz’s Delicatessen): “Two of us in a double-feature / I’m a rock and roller, she’s a science teacher / I send her looks, they don’t reach her / She does not know I’m in love with her / Later on it’s no better / She wants to take a walk so I let her / I watch her go and then I go and get her / I have to spell it out for her.”
Also vying for catchiest is “Hover,” a delectable piece of sweet pop devotion that would make The Fountains of Wayne proud, sung from one incredulous as to his good fortune in love: “You come and you glow and you hum and you hover, I cannot believe that you’re my lover.”

There’s more country twang in the high energy “The El”, a song that gives the album its title: “We were on pins and needles / You were gearing up to cry / I was the instigator / you were the reason why / You’re a long way from where you belong unaware.” This one could fit comfortably in the Old 97s repertoire.

Love as calming balm is the subject of “Your Nervous Heart”, where Miller gives an emotive vocal performance that really sells the message in lyrics that come close to cliché.
Strong guitars from Mr. Brion are the hooks that drive the song “I Want To Live,” a twist on the reason for wanting to survive: “I want to live / I want to see tomorrow yeah / So I can see you tomorrow, yeah.” It’s all about love, folks.

“Terrible Vision” is yet another love song, this one with female backing vocals (Karen Kilgarriff and Chrissy Guerrero) and sung from a position of some desperation. His love is everything and it’s going unrecognized: “I had a dream I was employed at my old position / as your second string / it cut me down to the quick.” The lyrics run counter to the seeming upbeat sound of the song, a method oft employed by Miller to good effect.
In spite of his happiness and recent marriage, Miller maintains that his inner songwriting voice will remain angst-ridden still to insure many great songs to come. Further, he has a stockpile of new songs that haven’t yet been recorded (some of these will make it onto the next Old 97s record).

Making this solo record was fun, and gave him a chance to record with other people and to record songs that he felt weren’t likely to win favor with his regular band-mates. Miller insists even more so than song selection, this solo project was about the process. “The Old 97s are a garage band and we rehearse and rehearse and then record - and this was total anarchy - all experimentation and inspiration,” Miller said.
With The Instigator, Miller shows he can craft solid pop with the best of them (and having Jon Brion’s clean sophisticated expertise doesn’t hurt). And while prolific Ryan Adams gets more press, Rhett Miller may be the one to watch in the long run. His introspective, sincere and intelligent “emotions laid bare” type of style is both easy to listen to and fun to hear, and his ability to write a seemingly endless number of appealing melodies is special too. I’m not as keen about the cover photo close-up (seemingly part Gap ad, part “look at how sensitive I appear”), but others might find Miller’s looks to be plenty appealing. Kept to a solid twelve tracks and forty some odd minutes of hook-filled pop artistry, this solo effort not only gets you smiling, it leaves you wanting more.

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Andy Partridge
Fuzzy Warbles, Vol. 1
Fuzzy Warbles, Vol. 2

(APE)

Release Date: December 2, 2002

www.xtcidearecords.co.uk

There are two types of people in this world: XTC fanatics and the rest. This criminally under-appreciated band has been plying their musical wares since the late 1970s, growing from punkish brash new wavers into the standard bearers of occasionally orchestrated sophisticate Beatle-esque pop. While the line-up has shrunk over the decades, the creative duo remains the same: bassist Colin Moulding and guitarist Andy Partridge write the songs. Of the two, Partridge’s output has far outpaced Moulding’s and also has included collaborations with other artists (as producer and/or musician), as well as a several experimental projects over the years (Lure of Salvage, Take Away, Through The Hill with Harold Budd, etc.).

Along the way, the band has accrued a number of admirers among fellow musicians and the listening public, most of whom display a rabid devotion to any and all things XTC. As with any popular/time-proven act, bootlegs arise over the years. Comprising those sundry bootlegs: live performances, songs from rare fan club collections, promotions spots, alternate studio takes, experimental noodling, and unreleased songs.

In the past few years, Partridge and XTC have done their part to subdue the bootleg traders, first with the live concert/BBC studio 4-CD collection Transistor Blast and this past year with the nicely packaged Coat of Many Cupboards that featured alternative versions, some unreleased songs and plenty recycled studio material.

When XTC was “on strike” to get out of their contract with Virgin Records, there was a long fallow period for listeners. Years went by without any studio releases (and all the while Partridge was penning new songs and making home-studio demos). So in a sense there was extra motivation for hungry XTC fans to trade any and all bootleg gems that could be procured. And while the activity is not quite on the same scale as those who collect Beatles or Grateful Dead boots, Andy Partridge is well aware of what’s being circulated out there.

As a public service to his worshipping fans, Partridge now promises a step-up from those poor quality tenth-generation cassette bootlegs. This series of cleaned-up/approved bootlegs, entitled Fuzzy Warbles I (a phrase lifted from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange), could run anywhere from eight to twelve discs total, depending on how deep the treasure trove of material runs, and how ambitious Partridge gets about cleaning it up and releasing it.

Originally this was supposed to be an XTC project, but Colin Moulding begged out of it rather than chance the financial risk, so now it’s out on new sub-label APE (Andy Partridge Editions). While some might balk at the price of these goodies, most of the converted brethren will find it a reasonable deal. For one, the sets come nicely packaged, with a full booklet of comments from Andy P., as well as lyrics.

Volume1 opens with “Dame Fortune,” a fun, upbeat tune that didn’t make the cut for Apple Venus One, but might yet have you jump for joy. Like many of the Apple Venus demos, Partridge gives it a very complete full-band treatment, simple drums, great bass, lead and rhythm guitar, as well as occasional harmonies.

“Born Out of My Mouth” is a pleasant surprise, another fairly completed song born out of a contributed piece of music to a Microsoft interactive musical website in 1995, as is “Everything,” a song first written for Oranges And Lemons that fell by the wayside. “Goosey Goosey” is another catchy one that never made the final cut, this one originally intended for Nonsuch.

Smaller snippets include “Howlin’ Burston,” a promo for a local deejay in the manner of Captain Beefheart, the avant-garde experimental “Mogo,” “Ocean’s Daughter,” a little instrumental bit of electronic ditty, and its surf-rock musical cousin “Space Wray”. Along the same lines of electronic experimentation is the instrumental “EPNS,” and an adaptation of an Ernest Noyes Brookings poem entitled “Rocket”.

“Don’t Let Us Bug Ya” is one of five polished songs written, then ultimately discarded, for the Disney/Tim Burton animated feature James and the Giant Peach. Offering Partridge scant remuneration (and no royalties), the job ultimately went to Disney go-to-guy Randy Newman and Partridge was left with five nice “bug-themed” songs. This one is from when James first meets the oversized insects.

“Summer Hot As This” has a little less polish than some of the other demos, yet sports some jazzy guitar synth, as well as some nice Dave Gregory guitar accompaniment. “Wonder Annual” is another fully realized studio demo, a song about female masturbation (though not obviously) that missed the cut first on Nonsuch and then later with Wasp Star (and again, one wonders why - it’s a great song).

For historical perspective, you get a buzzy version of “Merely A Man,” a tinny but thoroughly likeable home croon version of “Miniature Sun,” a great demo of “I Bought Myself A Liarbird” and a very bare-bones archaeological artifact wherein Partsy lays down improvised nonsense to capture an idea for a song that would become “Complicated Game.”

True fans might best enjoy the two tracks related to “That Wave.” In “That Wag” you get studio antics from Partridge who didn’t realize he was being recorded while aiming to get “That Wave” down correctly. You are treated to his “Mr. Jiggs” imitation, and brief versions of how “That Wave” would sound as done by The Cure, The Smiths and Dylan respectively.

Volume 2 opens with a dramatic mellotron musing entitled “Ridgeway Path,” then segues into one of my favorite unreleased Partridge tunes “I Don’t Want To Be Here.” For the record, this is a different version than most of us boot-traders already have (this one stripped down and intended as a contribution to an aids benefit album from a US radio station). Originally Partridge wrote this song for UK pop chanteuse Cathy Dennis, who rejected it as “too wordy.” Her loss is your gain - though I contend it still would make for a fine XTC song in the studio.

The pleasant surprise of this disc is “Young Marrieds,” a great song that never made it onto Wasp Star due to an overabundance of material. ‘Tis a shame, really, since this fully-realized song is quite wonderful, an acid examination of young marital unhappiness.

Short takes include the Jamaican-style phone message “No One Here Available,” “Miller Time,” a short instrumental precursor to “Hold Me My Daddy” and “Goom,” another in the avant-garde series where noises can be songs too.

Psychedelia is the unspoken theme behind Volume 2. Historical perspective for this volume is provided with alternate versions of “25 O’Clock,” “You’re The Wish You Are I Had,” a very early version of “All Of A Sudden,” a great paisley version of “Summer’s Cauldron” and a demo from the earlier years’ “Chain Of Command.” Two separate versions of “Ra Ra For Red Rocking Horse” offer material for those keen on “compare and contrast” activities.

You get another of the James and The Giant Peach demos - the optimistic piano-driven “Everything Will Be Alright,” which Partridge declares is the nearest he every got to “You’re Mother Should Know.”

Also given here are two songs that were going to be passed off as lost tracks from obscure fictional 1960s bands and distributed with a magazine: “Then She Appeared” by The Goldens (which eventually found a home on Nonsuch) and “It’s Snowing Angels” by Choc Cigar Chief Champion (a mellow sort of Lovin’ Spoonful-type song that was included on the Hello Club CD from Andy Partridge).

“Ship Trapped In The Ice” is another lovely infectious song from 1995 that documents in simple metaphor how XTC was frozen out from creating new music by their poor deal with Virgin Records.

I admire these first two CDs, because with *Fuzzy Warbles* Partridge is putting a wide variety of different types of things out there, some more polished and finished, others decidedly seminal or experimental.

These CDs are not recommended to anyone as an introduction to XTC (or even to musical sub-set solo Andy Partridge). In fact, perhaps there should be some sort of fan qualification before purchase. These are not put out for close critical scrutiny (yet here I am reviewing it), but merely for devoted fan appreciation. Partridge is clever and intelligent and often goes beyond safe boundaries to push his music into new areas.

While under-appreciated by the general public, those who recognize him as a musical genius will find these ongoing CDs an enjoyable delight. Partridge loves puns and wordplay, and his lyrics reflect that, and his music stretches across a wide spectrum that is reflected here (some with release-ready production, others with a “warts n’ all” harshness). Ian Cooper does a fine job mastering these two initial volumes.

Not only do they offer us rabid fans historical perspective (yes, I confess my love of all things Partridge), but also it gives a glimpse behind the music in the comments Partridge offers in the accompanying booklet, and serves up a few heretofore-unknown gems.
Volume 1 has 19 tracks; Volume 2 has 18 more, and rumors abound that there are more than 250 tracks to be captured when all is said and done.

For hardcore fans of Andy Partridge and his music, these first two Fuzzy Warbles are a wonderful way to pass the time until the next official XTC release (rumored to be already underway).

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Menthol
Danger: Rock Science!

(Hidden Agenda)

Release Date: October 22, 2002

www.parasol.com

If a late 1970s/early 1980s new wave revival really catches on, the fun band out of Champaign-Urbana Illinois called Menthol could well be leading the retro way. This would be a major setback to the brain trust at Capitol Records, who in the midst of yet another restructuring at the time, unceremoniously dumped Menthol in 1999 before they could release this fun collection. Not only did they drop them fast and hard, they also refused to turn over the master tapes for the songs on the album.

So Menthol re-recorded the same album (at a mere fraction of the original cost) and now, several years hence, our good friends at Hidden Agenda, have seen fit to set matters right with a recent release. After years and years, we are presented with ten tracks that cover some 37 minutes with sounds that are something akin to Devo meets Thomas Dolby meets The Cars meets New Order meets Gary Numan and a whole legion of others from days gone by.

Menthol is Balthazar de Ley on vocals and guitar (he the former bassist from Hum), Henry Frayne on additional guitars, Joel Spencer on bass and background vocals, and Colin Koteles on drums. They recorded one album under their original band name Mother (on Mud Records), then relocated to Chicago, renamed themselves and put out a self-titled album as Menthol in 1995. In 1997 they began work on what would become Danger:Rock Science!

The problem is that, in the interim, 1980s retro has become semi-fashionable: VH1 specials look back fondly with a nostalgic bent, and many bands and deejays now trade on reviving those glitzy sounds (particularly the Electroklash movement out of Berlin and other parts of the world, recalling the techo-pop of bands like Kraftwerk, New Order and Depeche Mode). So while this project once was at the forefront of retro, it’s eventual delay and release make it seem just another follower in the fad of the moment.

Rest assured this is not the case. For one thing, the songs manage to sound legitimately from that era (play Danger:Rock Science! for someone and tell them Menthol are a band from the 1980s and no one will doubt your claim). It’s all here: authentic dance beats and techno sounds, cool synthesizers and treble-heavy guitars, and vocals with that same sort of dramatic detachment to them. It is a near-perfect synthesis of songs that de Ley describes as “the kind of music my mom did aerobics to when I was in middle school.”

It also has a French new wave component to it, reflecting from the time Balthazar spent growing up in Paris, most notably the influence of Charles de Goal (described as similar to a brooding agressive early Gang of Four with drum machine and keyboards).

The title track has more than a touch of early-era Devo about it, that sort of amusing mechanical repetition that here warns against rock science falling into the wrong hands as it pursues romance through observation: “Baby don’t you know / that I'm gonna be a man tonight / when the strobe light burns out / Electrified and mesmerized, re-energized / To tell the truth you've got the eyes of a pretty girl / looking for a pretty boy who knows all the boundaries have been destroyed.”

“The Guiding Hand” is bouncy keyboard-synth sound dance fun, with lyrics that speak of some overseeing power that keeps everything firmly in control: “No right no rush / just the theory of the guiding hand's firm touch / unwinds unfolds and feel the guiding hand's firm hold.”

“Future Shock” goes on a bit long and doesn’t seem quite to achieve the Gary Numan sound it aspires to. Another less successful effort here is the almost drone-rock of the semi-spoken “The Professor” (evoking Tim Curry and Klaus Nomi and “M”),

Still, a song like “Strange Living”(Love Song for Elizabeth Fraser) makes up for any other possible shortcomings. This wonderful and strange song contains the beautiful phrase “You will be my Cocteau Twin” and refers to odd affairs with older drunken women: “Sometimes due to hardships in my life I've been driven to depend upon the generosity of older alcoholic women / Well it's strange livin' very very strange autumns / Spending the afternoons inside with the blinds drawn tight / Feeling like another hidden bottle in a house of hidden bottles.”

“The Sun’s Rays” is more good fun, with a sunny synthesizer riff that’s plenty catchy (a la The Cars), along with a punchy beat. “New Recruits” talks about a crazy world of artifice where things mean less and less, and the only hope is the new recruits.
“What’s Your Rationale?” is another one that sounds genuinely from some distant past (great music, but unfortunately lacking distinctive lyrics). “A Bitter Feud” serves up a very catchy melody rife with hooks and some very potent words: “I slipped a note into your birth control pill case / and now I'm waiting for a moment when I see your face / a moment that may never take place.” This song, once subtitled “John Hughes 2000” until release delays made it obsolete, could well work as a soundtrack piece for any classic Hughes brat pack flick.

“Solitary Zone” is a strong track to close the CD, a pleasant enough song about the mental exercises gone through to try and delay impending orgasm. The sounds delivered on Danger:Rock Science! sound fresh because of their retro difference, and while a few cuts do sound too derivative, most manage to recreate that era flawlessly.

If you are nostalgic for the synth-pop sounds of 1980s music (and while I’m tempted, I won’t list the 50 other bands you might hear in Menthol’s sounds), then Menthol is a good first step toward that revival. You get the postmodern feel, the catchy yet often empty techno nuances, and plenty to dance to (even if the lyrics often reflect bleak despair). Everything old is new again, and in this case, everything new is old again.

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