So here’s the real quick and simple review of Strange Weather, Isn’t It?;, !!!’s 4th and most recent album: it’s good but not great. The good stuff, of which there’s a decent amount, is scattered throughout the 11-track album. The problem with this distribution strategy, and the reason why this album falls short of becoming great, is that these good parts are tarnished by and tucked randomly within meandering and cluttered tracks. Take, for example, “Even Judah Gave Jesus a Kiss” (yes, that’s the actual title—and yes, that’s the refrain that echos throughout the track): It’s not until after three minutes and forty-five seconds that the song settles into the promising groove that is teased out in the first few minutes. The bulk of the song, as is the case for many other tracks on this album, is bogged down with just really poor vocal performances and lyrics that appear to be lifted from a book of high school student’s poetry. It’s only Mario Andreoni’s guitar playing that keeps the track nearly interesting up until the 3:45 break. Once the vocals finally drop out, Andreoni powers ahead with stutter-gun reverb lines that lift the song higher and higher, pulling up the drums and bass into a pocket groove before an assortment of percussions wash away the song into its end. One has to have a great deal of patience to get all the way through the 3-plus minutes of mediocrity to finally hear the really solid guitar playing and musicianship hidden deep within the song’s conclusion. Unfortunately, this sort of patience is more or less needed for the whole of the album.
The one exception to this good-with-the-bad is “The Hammer,” a 5-minute electro-dance burst of consistently even sonic energy. Designed strictly for the dance floor, hi-speed driving, or intense car chases, “The Hammer” is a pump-you-up four-on-the-floor jam that hits on all cylinders from start to finish. The vocals consist of Nic Offer performing variations of “Don’t Stop / Stop / Stop” and “Come on / come on / come on,” as in, sometimes the line is just, “Don’t stop,” while other times, it will be the more thorough offering of “Don’t stop / stop / stop.” This repetition is okay though, especially on this track, because it’s the fuzzy power-bass, e-drums, and psychedelic synths that launch the song into a stratosphere where the words are nearly meaningless. Much like “Me and Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard,” and “Take Ecstasy with Me,” —singles from earlier albums that raised the band’s profile to dizzying heights at the time of both releases—”The Hammer” works so well because of the lack of any excess and distraction. That is, all the parts jigsaw fit into one another until the whole picture is complete. There is no cluttering vocals to pull the listener away from the project of the music. There are no spare pieces lying around. Much like “Me and Giuliani” and “Take Ecstasy,” “The Hammer” reaches its highest points when the vocals are treated as just another sound, integrated into the audio aesthetic of the dance-oriented groove, and not a vessel for meaning. In other words, !!! are at their best when they don’t try to be a quote-unquote lyrically-deep band and stick to crafting well-made groove-based jams. Even on “Giuliani,” a relatively lyric-heavy song for !!!, the verses serve as breaks for the song’s momentum, pit stops for the music to switch gears, add layers, and tune up for another few minutes of increasingly intense dance music.
“The Hammer” aside, the rest of the album consists of tracks with many moments that offer teasingly uncapitalized potential. Like “Even Judah,” “Hollow” is marred with C+C Music Factory style cheese-lyrics that distract from otherwise glimmering phases of smart guitar lines and, at times, solid synth playing. This sort of competition between quality and non-quality gives the album an uneven feel, and makes one wonder how much better !!! could be if they let their strengths dominate—namely, their ability to create an invigorating disco-groove that builds and builds to its satisfying peak—and put their energy-draining vocals way in the background. If Offer recognizes that his lyrics function best as an element of sound and not a method for creating some sort of deep meaning, and Andreoni is given more room for his guitar playing to breathe, then there’s much to look forward to from !!!’s future material.
