Another slice from the bland pie.
The twelve tracks of Grant-Lee Phillips' latest offering 'Strangelet' are a reviewer's worst nightmare - too mediocre to hate, too bland to love and difficult to write about individually, morphing as they do into one amologous blob. That said, opening track 'Runaway' is one track that can be spoken about on its own, being as it is, surprisingly, rather good. It doesn't quite manage to 'delve deep into the inner conflagrations of the soul' as Mr. Phillips' press release states (its lyrics include 'Well I feel I've had enough, enough / I just wanna' run away / Run, run away [x3]"), but it does harbour melancholy in its upbeat pace and husky vocals. After such an opening the over-sugared Goo-Goo-Dolls-at-their-worst-esque 'Soft Asylum (No Way Out)' comes as something of a disappointment, and signals that 'Strangelet' is without a doubt taking the well-travelled road of bland guitar rock.
Sadly, it's all downhill from here. 'Fountain of Youth' has a vaguely catchy chorus ruined by a sickly and sentimental opening (you can imagine middle-aged housewives loving this track and thinking they're genuine rock fans; but no-one else will be able to stand it) and 'Hidden Hand''s fake country sound makes one wish for a hidden hand to put over Grant-Lee's mouth. The vocals and melody of 'Dream In Color' are among the best on the album and with different backing may have constituted part of a decent song but an over-enthusastic stringed backing track renders it too cheesy for anything but a sandwich.
The first half of the album draws to a close with 'Chain Lightning', one of the strongest tracks on the album, one that displays geniuine emotion in its paced vocals and almost but not quite overstated backing instruments. Sadly, the album's last six songs have a habit of blending together even after several listens. 'Johnny Guitar' and closing piece 'So Much' are two of the more noticable tracks, but only because they skirts around bad country cliches.
Mr. Phillips' press release claims 'if at the end of everything as we know it doesn't sound all that "nice" to you, perhaps you're unaware of Grant-Lee Phillips' lyrical knack for dinvining light from the darkness, extracting motivation from misery...', as well as barely making sense, such a claim fails to rebuke arguements against this album - it's unlikely anyone will reject it for not being "nice" enough, in fact, the opposite is likely to be true. Mr. Phillips' vocals are versitile enough to be suited to both darker, truly soul-searching singer-songwriter material or country-pop ditties; the problem with 'Strangelet' is that he hasn't decided which to go for, and as such remains stranded in a bland non-man's land, clearly aching to be cooler than it is.