Search - Cargo Cult :: Strange Men Bearing Gifts

Arena rock from punks

Stargrazer | deep in the heart of Michigan | 02/07/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Interest in Duane Denison's angular guitar brilliance led me to this album. Surprisingly, it is far more poppy than any of his subsequent bands (the Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk, DK3, etc.). Sounds pretty good, with lots of space between the instruments, big drums, clear vocals. And that is actually it's failure. With harsher edges and more buried, smoggy sound, it would (counter-intuitively) be a more gripping album. Nothing at all wrong with the songwriting or the delivery, just incorrectly produced. Denison's guitar succeeds the most when it has to wrestle it's way out of a morass -- here it is crystalline and clinical.



Atrocious cover art, too."