Ali:

Preconceptions:
I have no idea who this is. I think it is definitely better that we don’t mention who suggested the album because it would add on additional preconceptions as to what it would be.

Mood:
I’m in a terrible mood.

After Listening:
It is probably better that I’m not really paying attention to the lyrics, because I just heard them say “tipping cows”. The guitar riffs are delicious and the patterns are fun as sh** to listen to. Plus? They have a experimental feel to them. I’m pretty sure if their songs were longer than they are I would just be angry at whomever picked this. Thank goodness this isn’t an Allman situation. I’d have to get all stabby on a fellow RCer… and I had to have all that Juggalo-detox after Riddlebox. It’d be a step in the wrong direction.
I really dig how the lyrics are not spit out with a specific rhythm/tempo. However, when I take a moment to listen to them I think I’m reading a page from my friend Drew’s acid journal. (I wonder if that is still online…)

Favorite track/tracks:
Gullah – It had a pretty sick lick in it.
10001110101 – Initially I thought it was binary, but it’s 907 in binary. 907 is the area code for Alaska, and frankly… who’d want to be in Alaska? I’m guessing they used it for its rhythmic value. It makes me giggle.

Least favorite track/tracks:
Honestly? The songs merged into each other so I cannot actually think of one that was bad for me.

Overall (1-5 stars):  4
Extra Credit: Taylor Duffy – Plastic Jesus (for the voice – It’s not the song you’re thinking of. Trust me.)
Fu Manchu – Mongoose (for the guitar – If I could get naughty with a guitar riff it would be this one.)

Josh:

Precon: No idea. Sounds like an early 2000’s Darkness type band.

Favorite Track: 10001110101
Least Favorite: I didn’t take note of anything in particular.

Hot licks, pretty a$$ kicking. Is this blues metal? Or blue metal as it were.
I often don’t know where one songs ends and another begins.
10001110101 caught my attention. I thought it was about binary, but it seems to be about chemistry. Either way, I’m going to be singing about zeros and ones the rest of the day. BINARY SOLO.
The lighter blues stuff at the end is an interesting inclusion.

A million ways I could go with all the nerdy fantasy references, but these like to rock more than anything so I’m giving them a rock elemental.

Magic the Gathering Card: Subterranean Spirit

Marissa:

Preconceived Notions:  Never heard of ‘em….at all.  I’m nervous

As Listening:  This kind of sounds like what I imagine it a collaborative effort between Rush, The Doors and Red Hot Chili Peppers to make a musical about Dungeons and Dragons would sound like.  Or possibly, what would happen if you tried to make a soundtrack from snippets of conversations at a Lord Of The Rings, well really any, convention set to a blues-rock.
It’s easy to think that what the singer is actually saying is “My Cigars” off of Mice & Gods.  I’d actually like to hear that song.
I would really be curious about what makes a fundraising event the “Bake Sale of the Year”.
And also what does Cthulu’s redheaded step child really look like?  Does it look normal?  Is that why this child is shunned?  Points for using “candelabra” in a song.  And Basilisk..  I’m glad I’ve read Harry Potter so I know what they’re referencing.  Oh my god, seriously, Circus Maximus is the lyrical version of Geek Jambalaya.
I can’t take this seriously at all.  Am I supposed to?
Land of Pleasant Living..  Now I’ll never be able to look at fireworks ever again and will only see exploding octopi.
Alright, I quite like Gravel Road, I just kind of wish they would have left the sparser arrangement at the beginning throughout the sung part of the song, although the breakdown is pretty awesome.  Who wants to go to a tent revival tonight?!

After Listening:  Although it feels kind of all over the place, this album was a lot of fun.  I don’t know how often I’ll listen to it as a whole after this, but I did add Gravel Road to my singles playlist, so I’ll be revisiting that one for sure.  The combination of styles just works really well and, like I said, although the lyrics were lacking any type of cohesion, I can’t complain about a song that’s verbose.  I would be really curious to see what a concert with these guys looks like.

Favorite track: Gravel Road
Least Favorite: Nothing stood out as really being worse than anything else.  Everything was at least, Ok.

Overall: I’m giving two 4’s in a row.  I feel unimaginative.  I hope someone picked a terrible album for our next one so I can change my track record.

Mike:

After Listening: This is a rock album, and it’s a great one. Maybe I’ll be in the minority here, but I have always envisioned Clutch as the spiritual successor to American Rock music.  They’re definitely not influenced by the indie rock scene, and they don’t take anything from our brothers across the pond either.  Instead this album is a display of classic rock backbone, country imagery (mostly in the form of redneck references), and blues jams.   Frontman Neil Fallon was a lit major and he is always keen to drop a lyrical barrage of well “versed” vocabulary, with involved wordplay on any number of topics from paranoid laden conspiracy theories (which he often presents in such a way that he’s clearly conveying the paranoid aspect over the concern), multi-faceted assaults on organized religion (without “preaching” against one specific belief system), and a great deal of subtle self depreciation.  The delivery of these lyrics is also unique, in key for sure- but often coarse and eschew of measure – a match for the music in energy intensity if not always congruent in mood.

The music keeps Fallon’s lyrics from becoming too esoteric: instead it’s honest, grounded, and lots of fun.  Throughout out their entire career Clutch has always kept a rhythm section of powerful import – and it doesn’t stop at bass and drums it trickles out through the guitars and keys as well – sometimes this rhythmic presence is in lockstep like on Burning Beard where there are clear and sharp ends to musical phrases – and even the lyrical cadences conform to the structure.  Other times the rhythm gets layered outward –as the opening of Gullah demonstrates – you get one phrase entered by the guitar, another back beat of that by the traditional bass and drums, and then finally the keyboard producing drone notes to build your anticipation “start moving on the Serengeti, get ready Freddy, see how they run”…

Note for note nothing Clutch produces is extremely complex in nature – and it’s the arrangements of the songs that tie in several simple elements together – 100011101 starts out for example with a large soundscape dynamically, and then quickly dies to a stripped down form over the numerical chorus so that you can better hear the jagged guitar behind it.  The 100011101 almost then mimics a chant –and becomes a rhythmic element in itself to contrast against the guitar.  Then for the verses we’re back to an aggressive large soundscape.   It’s these little teases of dynamics, rhythm and structure that develop the pieces.

Overall 5.0 To me, Clutch has just about everything you want in a rock band.  And in particular their maturing sound over the years has produced some outstanding albums in the 00’s.  The best way I can put it is that Clutch is a band that has mastered the “flow” of its music.  They have subtle genius at pulling together their parts and letting them expand outward – light touches that can produce heavy music.

I’m always baffled these guys don’t come up more when we get these lists of Rock albums and such from the past 20 years, I’m guessing nobody pays much attention to them b/c ironically they don’t really have a style that’s anything other than rock – they don’t have an angle of slacker rock, or britt rock, or art rock….they’re just sort of Clutch.  Maybe critical society at large pushed them to the side of fringe rock/metal after their 1st few albums (which also have several redeeming qualities) and never bothered to check back in.

But to me, if it’s a warm summers day and I have access to some beers and a back porch – I’m tossing this on and cracking them open.  God Bless Rock n’ Roll.

Paul:

Preconceptions: I don’t know Clutch songs. Here’s the problem—their name sounds like really awful hard rock. I know that’s unfair, but its just true. All I can think of is bad and cheesy hard rock, bandannas and one of those Calvin pissing on _____ stickers. I’m probably wrong, but whatever. Let’s find out

After Listening: Definitely not the cheesy awfulness I was thinking it might be. This album kicks some ass, in fact. I like the lead singer’s style. At times he even employs that spoken word type thing. At those spoken wordy type moments, Clutch sounds like a more badass and lyrically abstract version of The Hold Steady. There are also some really sick guitar riffs on this thing, like on pretty much the whole album. It’s kinda balls to the wall in that sense, and I did it, mostly. I couldn’t absorb all the lyrics in just this one listen, but I dig the songwriting approach. It’s somewhat outside the box and that’s cool. I’m glad I now know what Clutch is all about.

Favorites: Tripping the Alarm, Pulaski Skyway, Circus Maximus
Least: Mice and Gods

Overall: 3.87 Stars

Seth:

Preconceptions: I know very little about Clutch. I think it’s that metal-ish band that my friend Jim was really into in the 90s. I am pretty sure that the cute Ace of Cakes chick is the singer’s sister. Also, I was fairly certain they sucked.

After Listening: Baltimore, huh?

Engaged: Gravel Road, Gullah, 10001110101, 10,000 Witnesses
Slipping: Circus Maximus

Overall: Robot Hive/ Exodus sounds like the soundtrack to the annual Alabama Mensa Society Barbeque & Firearms Expo. At times it sounds like an in-joke I am not getting, but it’s far less metally and jockrockish as I had been led to believe. The singer has the standard 90ish alt-rock voice but there is a groove and sense of fun backing him that your Layne Staleys and Scott Weilands didn’t have. The addition of the organ to the 90s hardrock formula really lifts this up above their contemporaries. Maybe that’s why they had less radio play and more longevity. Clutch = Rage Against The Machine + cheap bourbon & snake handling cults – White boy Rap & Amnesty International pamphlets. I probably wouldn’t play this album a lot at home but I’d definitely see them live. Not sober, of course. So far, this is the surprise of the season for me.

Rating: 4.01
Prelisten Guess: 1.5
Season to Date: +1.84