At some point after Honey's Dead, The Reids lost interest in the overpowering wall of sound that had defined their music since 1985. Originally I blamed Hope Sandoval for what happened on Stoned and Dethroned. It appears three years later that it wasn't her at all, but some mid-life crisis that has infected William and Jim.
The first track is "I Love Rock And Roll." Given that the last thing that we heard from the Reids was a maxi-EP titled I Hate Rock And Roll, The move to Sub-Pop records has apparently done the boys some good.
Their sound now is a more stripped down version of the explosions that graced their previous recordings. The distortion is still there, it just plays a more minimal role. In fact, minimal is also the word that I would now use to describe the Chain's sound. All the parts are still there, but do not receive the heavy emphasis they did on previous efforts.
Much of the album is quite accesible and tight, though it does lack the bombast that many fans have come to expect from the Scottish group.
The first seven tracks of the album are strong, but pretty tame. Linda Reid takes over vocals on "Moetucker," a fairly blatant Ramones rip-off that featuring a truly annoying synth lead in the middle.
Hope rears her anorexic head on "Perfume," which will probably end up getting re-mixed by Alan Moulder as some inane 200 bpm house hit. Gratefully this is a novelty on the record, but it also features a contrived organ dub in the middle of the song which detracts greatly from it.
"Degenerate" leads the album into the second half, which is the stronger of the two. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as much of the first half was quite lacking in genuine emotion and creativity. Much of the pounding drum machine overdubs are gone and have been replaced by a more traditional kit. This dovetails nicely with the move to lo-fidelity now defining the band.
Pete Defreitas has apparently been ressurrected and plays on "Cracking Up" bringing some of The Bunnymen's Crocodiles sound with him. "Commercial" follows and is a a seven minute slow grind that sounds like an amazing Jimi Hendrix tribute. Plenty of shoe gazing will accompany this song if it makes into the clubs.
"Supertramp" is more of a traditional Chain song, with all the fuzz and crunch that you'd expect. The end of this track features another somewhat annoying trend of this record: The answering machine thing...it's all over the place, and starts to bug after awhile.
What Jim And William were trying to accomplish on S & D is actualized on "Never Understood". Make sure your lighter is full for the intro of this song. It's probably the best and most honest track on the record. "Man On The Moon" also features a ton of grind and distorted wah-wah bulked up with a horn track.
If it's possible to have a "kinder, gentler" JAMC, songs like "Black" would lead the argument. Since S & D, they re-tooled the to get the lo-fi sound, but have added some of the meat back to it. You won't want to beat up puppies just because you're listening to Munki, but the thought will cross your mind once or twice.
The album concludes with the aforementioned "I Hate Rock and Roll" as a bonus for all those who couldn't find the cash or the nerve to buy the single.
This album has grown on me some, but is by far their most mainstream record released to date. For the folks thought that they should have stopped after Psychocandy, you'll hate Munki.