A critical theory professor (whose classes I do not miss at all) onceripped me a new one for making light of The Self-Positioning Statement,that warning sign of gutless scholarly writing that lets all of yourreaders know what a horrible sexist oppressor you are before theyexpose themselves to your thoughts. 'Cause, you know, those same wordswould have a -totally- different effect on their readers if they werecoming from a Trobriand Islander. This is my indirect way of 'fessingup to the fact that I paid very little attention to the capital-Aalternative rock scene in the mid-to-late-'90s, and that I won't beable to tell you exactly which Jane's Addiction album God Bless the Electric Freaksounds a lot like; indeed, it's even a way of saying that I've neverheard a Jane's Addiction album, and that the comparison only came to mevia press blurbs on the band's web site. Taken together, all of thismight even say that, if you got sick of bands with fuzzy guitars in themid-to-late-'90s, you might be inclined to give this one a miss. You'dbe passing up on an entertainingly mixed bag of ideas, though:"Sunshine Supercreep" weaves effected sitar highlights through guitarlines that would have been entirely at home on whichever local radiostation was called The Edge in 1996, and tosses in some vocal harmoniesand UFO-addled lyrics to weird things up a bit, only to give way towhat could easily be My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult trying to hackit as a Metallica tribute band on "Apocalypse Rock" four minutes later.There are a couple of clunkers along the way ("Astrophobia" is draggeddown by its stupid space-hippie lyrics, and the dull pair ofinstrumental interludes really just have me reaching for thetrack-forward button about 30 seconds into each one), but the generallyhigh standard of production, combined with a feeling that the peopleinvolved actually took the time to write and refine their musicalideas, elevate God Bless the Electric Freak well beyond thespace-rock silliness that it could otherwise have been. It's notacademically rigorous by any means, but it sounds like the output ofthe people who were actually worth knowing when you were at university,which is a better deal for my seven bucks. samples:
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