Customer Reviews

Crybaby

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What can I say about the Crybaby? First, whatever it is you're expecting, forget it. This is not your standard Melvins record, if there is such a thing. This record is just wack. I think I really like it, though. It's a mish-mash of crazy stuff. Each song is totally different than the rest of the songs. All of them feature one guest or another. King Buzzo does not sing any of the songs.

Leif Garrett signing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is hillarious. It's almost as if The Melvins deliberately played the song straight-up so that Leif Garrett would in turn sing it straight up. You can tell that old Leif took his task very seriously, and I find the results pretty funny. Regardless, this cover is a nice nod to the unsung, yet crucial, influence that The Melvins had on Nirvana, and by proxy the whole grunge "movement."

David Yow sings a couple (including a great cover of an early Jesus Lizard song).

Hank Williams III sings a couple. I think these worked really well. Hank III sounds just like his grandfather.

Mike Patton does some crazy stuff with one of the songs, G.I. Joe.

The song they collaborated with Tool on is the most strange on the whole record. I like it. It's equal parts Melvins and Tool, but 100% obnoxious and ridiculous. I listened to it twice last night and decided that I like it.

The Crybaby is the Melvins having fun, and they invite a bunch of other people to have fun with them. They took some big artistic risks, and

pulled it off. This would not a a good place for a prospective Melvins fan to start off, however. But for someone who understands and appreciate's the Melvin's twisted view of the universe, it's great. If you want to get started with The Melvins, I recommend the following: The Maggot, Houdini, Stoner Witch, Ozma/Gluey Porch Treatments, Bullhead, and Stag. There are plenty of other great Melvins records, but those are a good place to start.

I now have all three of the Ipecac trilogy (The Maggot, The Bootlicker, and The Crybaby), and I must declare the whole thing a success. The Maggot may be my favorite Melvins record of all that they've done.

the third part of their three-albums-in-one-year ipecac trilogy, the crybaby is a frantic, scattered mess filled with special guest artists making more noise than the melvins themselves usually do. this is definitely NOT the place to start a melvins collection from (try "stoner witch" or "bullhead"), as much of the 73-minute album is comprised of the aforementioned special guests piling bleeps, bloops, and lyrics on top of the rather repetitive and simplistic bases the melvins provide for them. jim thirlwell's overlong and uninteresting "mine is no disgrace" suffers from a lack of invention on the melvins' part, as does bliss blood's contribution, "the man with the laughing hand is dead." hank williams III's two tracks are straight-forward country music, and mike patton's "g.i. joe" will not surprise fans of his recent "vocal stylings." the bright spots are tool's contribution, "divorced," a 14-minute journey on which heavy riffs, drum solos, and underwater keyboards share DNA, and the two david yow tracks, "dry drunk" being the better of the two, mostly because our melvins just decide to plain old ROCK, "maggot" style. yow's famous "drunken bum" vocal fits very well on top of the heavy metal thunder conjured by the melvins.

and as for "teen spirit;" you can just guess how THAT sounds. hint: think drunken karaoke.

this album is pretty much for completists and fans of the various guest artists. the melvins are one of THE most underrated and creative hard bands of the last decade, but this album won't to much to convince people of that. try the first album in the trilogy, "the maggot," and hear where heavy music SHOULD be, instead of where it IS, which is nowhere, hanging out with limp bizkit.

OK, so the only Melvins CD I owned prior to this was Ozma which I thought was OK, but this blew me away! Something for even the most fussy listener - Grunge for the Nirvana-heads, C&W for the Jerry Reeds, add in noise, ambient, rock, punk, all genres present and correct. Just check out the Patton track "GI Joe", or the Tool collaboration, or the Skeleton Key track....I could go on. Buy this now cuz I'm off to buy the other two in the trilogy...

The Melvins? Well, I have heard of them, though many people have not, because I was introduced to them through TOOL a long time ago. I always looked at them as a second-best to TOOL but after this record I think it fair to say that they are my #1 favorite band! The Melvins are an utterly fantastic band and deserve the recognition that they do not recieve, even after their, what? 10 albums? They are really clenching here, and they should be better known! Ok, so let me get to why they are so good...

The songs are all amazing, some of which are on their for good "mind-screw" fun, and the way the album is packaged upside down and backwards, it makes you think somethings wrong and it takes a while at first (at least, it did for me) to get it open! The legal rights at the bottom are very humorous as well "All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is totally illegal, so don't even think about it." Funny stuff, I like a band with a sense of humor.

The boys did a fantastic job from track 1 to 11, I can't believe the beauty of Smells Like Teen Spirit. They covered this song better than Nirvana did nearly 10 years ago! Simply amazing. The singer's voice sounds much better on this recording then on the Nirvana recording of '91, and his voice is not slow, draggy, and drug-induced, he sounds very good. Also, the track recorded in cooperation with TOOL is fantastic. 15 minutes of amazing swirling, whispy glory. The best Melvins track since Hung Bunny off of the album-to-be-called "Lysol" which was abstaned because of legal issues from the cleaning product company.

Another quality is that they swear quite often in this recording, yet they do not recieve a Parental Advisory warning label, they never do...I think it may be because they don't have enough money to submit to the rating board so they just release them through a secondrate publisher that doesn't give a damn if they've submitted, which is also probably why no stores carry their music (it took me 17 stores to find just one that even sold Melvins PERIOD much less having this album in stock, and most of them were big names like Sam Goody and The Wall, thank god the small-town "Wave Records" had it!)

So, if you in any way like music, and don't mind a couple or so country-track mocks, then pick up this CD instantly, the metal fatigue will keep you hooked for life!

Crybaby puts an interesting spin on the collaborative approach. Working with a slew of musicians from the wider metal and punk world, the Melvins hold an invitational to their thick sludgy freak rock fest. The results are a rollercoaster of songs that run through tempos from slow to savage. "Dry Drunk" is one of the more unhinged things I've heard recently. What is going on in the background with that lamb? And what just happened in the middle with that dialog and saxophone snippet!? It's a recent favorite.

Not to be missed is the inspired "Smell's Like Teen Spirit" duet. But there's much more to this album than a great cover.

The Melvins give experimental metal a good name.

An excellent collaboration of underrated and very talented musicians with the almighty MELVINS. Its a great way to complete the trilogy.

The only reason I dont give The Crybaby, as a whole 5 stars, is that some of the songs lack some ingenuity and are a bit hackneyed (e.g. moon pie). Others carry on just a bit too long without changing pace or idea, making them a bit boring after the first few minutes (though I suppose true to some MELVIN's musical approach)- such as Bliss Blood's contribution 'the man with the laughing hand is dead'. Its actually incredibly dark, thick, and mood setting but gets sleepy after the first 5 minutes. I feel a bit more could of been done with it.

Remember, the songs I consider not as well executed may be great for other listeners. And I consider most songs to be true gems of hard rock and music truly "alternative" to what is popular now. All which deserve more stars than exist in our galaxy. There is definitely something for everyone to appreciate on this eclectic album.

PS- Their version of Teen Spirit does more for me than Nirvana's.

This album is the real experimental one of the trilogy, not the Bootlicker, as the Melvins had said it would be. Lots of different styles converge on this, owing to the guest artists featured. Some old country, some industrial, some punk, and the ever-present weirdness. Overall, it works, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who hasn't been acquainted with the Melvins already. Any longtime fan will no doubt appreciate it, though. My favorite tracks are Leif Garrett's version of Teen Spirit, Mine is no Disgrace, Divorced, Dry Drunk, and The Man with the Laughing Hand is Dead. I like how they got a bag lady to sing backup on Spineless.

The Melvins never cease to impress. Each track on The Crybaby is a collaboration with other artists...various styles...it is very cool. This trilogy (Maggot, Bootlicker, Crybaby) is very interesting. BUY THEM ALL!

Starts off with "Smells Like Teen Spirit"- the best version of this song recorded to date... The cover done with Tool is probably my favorite song on the whole album(maybe just because I love Tool so much). Really good to listen to when you're hanging out with your friends...also check out the other two albums that go with this one-"The Bootlicker" and "The Maggot" which are outstanding as well.

You have to give the Melvins credit, they've managed to stick around for well over a decade, and after all this time, they seem to only get weirder, as if that were possible! Leif Garrett singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Hank Williams III singing "Ramblin" Man" and the Melvins all on the same cd. What other band would have done this, I ask you? Ladies and Gentleman, we need the Melvins, if for no other reason than just an outlet for bizarre behavior!! I own the whole Trilogy, all 3 cds are worth having for different reasons-The Maggot will tear you a new hole, the Bootlicker is like a cool underground finger snapper, and then the Crybaby is sort of like some weird recipe your mom cooked up one day while watching soap operas, drinking martinis and taking prozac and morphine. I rate it a 4 because, lets be honest, it is not for everyone, and it is very up and down and occasionally drags on way too much, but like I said, who else but the Melvins!!!!! I have alot of Man-Love for these Gents!