Customer Reviews

Bleeder

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Bleeder is an adventurous step for Myracle Brah and, alas, something of a misstep. Rather than a straight set of songs, like the Baltimore band's prior three releases, it's injected with a range of odd little experiments--becoming in the process an illustration of how a collection of great songs doesn't necessarily add up to a great CD.

Song for song, Bleeder's got as much good material as any Myracle Brah release, save for the first. The grinding guitar epic "Independence Day" stands proudly with Myracle Brah classics. "Superwannabe" recalls some of Stone Temple Pilots' recent pop-side masterpieces. "Orange Shirt" and "Nation's Out" show off leader Andy Bopp's affection for early '80s British-influenced pop. The descending chorus of "Wasted" is simply of one of the best things he has released.

And Bleeder does achieve a kind of mini-coherence in its last three tracks. The acoustic "Broken" can be seen as a successful experiment, with a touch of the medieval in its rhythms. "Roller Coaster" and "Minimum Mary" find Bopp exploring his upper vocal register to charming effect; the latter song could have slotted happily onto the end of Big Star's Radio City.

Then there are the experiments. At least one of them works. Breaking the pattern of lead-off pop gems ("Whisper Softly," "Isn't It A Crime?" and "I'd Rather Be"), "Song 37" is like nothing the band has produced, with echoed vocals, pounding drums (the lead instrument) and subdued mellotron backing. Along the way, somehow, it channels the spirit of U2.

But Bleeder's other sonic adventures do not fare as well. They range from minimalism ("Kane Wasn't Able") to distortion ("They Hear" and "Theme from Disconnect") to a rare cover (a loving if rather slavish version of Paul McCartney's "Too Many People") to simple filler ("Horn Interlude").

I'm not sure what the band intended here--the packaging is as unrevealing as ever--but Bleeder doesn't quite hold together. The experiments break up the CD's coherence and what might have been a great 10-track CD seems in the end an assemblage of 15 bits and pieces in need of some glue.