Search - Earthlings? :: Earthlings

Takes a little while to get into, but worth it

drumb | milwaukee, wi United States | 10/13/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD took me a while to get into, but after 3 or 4 listens, I really began to take to it. Earthlings? has an all-star cast assembled that includes Dave Catching (Queens of the Stone Age), Fred Drake, and Franz Stahl (Scream) immediately showing that the band has enough instrumental ability to easily carry a CD. But these 3 seasoned rock veterans aren't just content to put out another alternative or stoner rock release, instead they draw upon countless genres alive in today's alternative spectrum (including indie, pop, psycadelia, stoner metal, and punk) to create a truly unique sound built from the ground up using already well established genres and ideas. Although there are few bands that could accurately be compared to Earthlings?, the band does borrow a lot from some pretty obvious sources, most notably Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Arto Lindsay, and Smashing Pumpkins (particularly the vocals). The result is a slow build album that covers the listener in waves of feel-good synth sounds and ambient mood music but still retains enough of a rock base to drive the album along without becoming tedious or too self-absorbed. A sense of climax is cast throughout the entire album and every song fits into the seem-less patchwork of the CD incredibly well, making smooth transitions between ambient tracks such as "Happiest Day of My life", electronic exploration tracks like "Illuminate", and a few good old fashioned rockers like "Stungun" and "Cavalry" thrown in for good measure. This is yet another CD that proves critics who called the stoner rock scene repetative and dull utterly and completely wrong, showing that heaviness and melody can coexist in a multitude of ways while still sounding new and fresh."