Customer Reviews

Fantastic Planet

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I agree with most of the posts. Fantastic Planet is criminally underrated. A few things that haven't been mentioned: the approach the band takes toward melody is incredibly innovative. The melodies are essentially pentatonic but devoid of recognizable patterns--no cliches--and yet somehow they still manage to be catchy. No one has said much about the lyrics. Saturday Savior is one of the most devastatingly honest songs about sexual politics I've ever run across. Dirty Blue Balloons and the Nurse Who Loved Me are two of the most perceptive songs about drug addiction I know of. Other reviewers have commented on the unique soundscape of the album, but I don't know quite how to describe it. As I write this I'm listing to the Flaming Lips' album Transmissions From the Satellite Heart. Very different style from Fantastic Planet, but similar in the way it uses distortion and ambient sounds to create the sense of an altered reality. It's amazing the way Failure manages to sustain and deepen this style over the length of the album, which is over an hour long! Do yourself a favor and listen to the samples before you purchase this record. I know a bunch of people who HATE this cd, including some whose musical opinion I respect, so it's definitely not for everyone. Hope this helps.

I am surprised by how many people do not know what this album is about. It is, as stated by the band themselves, an album about heroin abuse, specifically its pitfalls. Saturday Savior is not a song about sexual politics. It is a song that Ken Andrews sings in character. The character that he takes on is heroin personified. As the drug "speaks" to the listener, the premise for the whole album is set up. The user is hopelessly in love with the drug and wants something from it that it can never give. The drug is cold and will never give itself to the user. It will only tease, as it has no heart to give. The user is being used and tossed aside like so much trash. The rest of the album chronicles a day in the life of the user and the drug's parasitic "relationship" with him. The album begins and ends with clock-like sounds, bookending the beginning and end of the user's day and offering an eerie reminder of the user's lost and perhaps, very limited, time. "Stuck on You," while not so subtle in its title, subtly compares heroin to a tune that slowly but surely creeps up on you and becomes ingrained in your consciousness. "The Nurse Who Loved Me" is the user deluding himself into thinking that the girl with "pharmacy keys" (heroin) actually cares for him. He insists that the girl "acts just like a nurse with all the other guys," but the song begins and ends with the user lying by himself face-down on the ground. This is the moment on the album where we realize just how pathetic the drug has made the user and to what extent he has been degraded and demoralized by his addiction. The pounding horror of "Daylight" ends the album. The user tries to assure himself that "daylight won't find us here," but there is, of course, no escape from reality, and this is confirmed by the aforementioned clock sounds. This is an album that is practically overflowing with symbolism both in its lyrics and in its music. Failure sound like no other band, but it would not be inaccurate to characterize them as a combination of Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine. They can create massive soundscapes and love their feedback, but they also understand their way around a pop song, albeit really heavy pop songs. This is a landmark in space rock. Enjoy.

I can not believe that it took me almost 10 years to discover this great album after it was originally released. I remember seeing the poster for this album up in the window of a record store I used to go to all the time to buy cd's at but I never once thought about buying this album. Well, I am like a lot of people it seems because this album has never really gotten it's due. This is one of the most complete albums from start to finish that you will find. It starts off with a bang with Saturday Saviour and then ends with the unbelievable Daylight. This is a must have for anyone who really loves great rock music and great music in general.

Failure came to my attention (as with many of their fans) when "Stuck on You" started getting limited radio play and a memorable video on MTV (it was filmed like the opening sequence of a James Bond movie). A friend of mine tuned into them, too, and we each picked up concert tickets to see them live.

I have never regretted seeing a band perform live less. Of all the concerts I've seen, that's the one I'd want to go back to.

This was, unfortunately, the last of Failure's three albums (four if you count the near-apocryphal "Replicants" project with Tool and Zaum, or the early singles they released--try for their B-Sides online if you're a fan: Dipped in Anger, Golden, Count My Eyes, You're Too Much, and their ultra-rare Untitled track), and it was fantastic. Every track is above average, with some (Sergeant Politeness, Saturday Saviour, Pitiful, Another Space Song... Hell, most of them) standing out as long-term favorites, "Stuck On You" included. After fine-tuning their sound on the previous "Magnified" release, the group kept up with that same alt-space-rock sound and Ken's sometimes atonal singing, and put out what is likely their best effort.

Unfortunately, Failure didn't last long afterward--the success of their "Enjoy the Silence" cover on the Depeche Mode "For the Masses" tribute album came after the break-up of the band. Each member went on to solo projects, with Ken Andrews (vocals/guitar/songwriter) being the most notable--he released two albums solo under the name On. "Shifting Skin" is a fantastic, mellow electronic work, while "Make Believe" surpasses it (though it is not a commercial release--finding it takes some doing). He has since gone on to form "Year of the Rabbit," whose album is forthcoming in June (though their web site, yearoftherabbit.net, has an EP). The group sounds remarkably similar to Failure, so any true fan should give them a listen.

Truth be told I am a Failure fan. Unfortunately I never heard Failure when they were making actual albums. The band broke up before I got any chance to see them live. I even missed them when they played second stage at Lollapalooza. I discovered this album by a freak accident: a friend of mine who was into Tool told me to check out Failure...they were "sick." I remember he gave me a stack of CDs which included some forgettable discs, and I think I was about to return all of his CDs with a "all of it sucked" disclaimer when I put in "Fantastic Planet." The opening song "Saturday Saviour" did me in. I remember hearing the little toy sample at the beginning of the record, a simple guitar scale, and then this booming/distorted bass sound that was bigger than any other instrument on tape. I remember yelling downstairs to my sister, "you gotta listen to this song." It turned into, you gotta listen to "Smoking Umbrellas" "Pillowhead" "solaris", etc. The lyrics are so genuinely honest, disconnected, intelligent (which relates to the space theme of the record); like the lyrics to one of my favorites "Another Space Song"..."THE SOLAR PANEL'S SHINING FACE, IS SMILING BACK ON ME. TWISTING OFF INTO THE SUN, IT'S OKAY TO BE LONELY." Or the absolute blood bath of bass, guitar effected swirls, and bombast that is "Heliotropic." That song is simply "sickeningly" gorgeous musically. Many people credit Ken Andrews with how great this record was/is, but honestly, listen to his projects like On or Year of the Rabbitt, and compare them to Greg Edwards (who wrote the majority of these amazing songs) band Autolux. That rests my case. This album ranks up there for me with Faith No More's "Angel Dust" PJ Harvey's "To Bring you My love" and Jeff Buckley's "Grace" as the best album of the 90's (I'm leaving out any Nirvana of course...In Utero is sick too). If you do not like this record, something is wrong with your ears. "Sick!". This is a concept record, but it's filled with songs, not filler. These were real emotions, real addictions, real uncertainty for these guys (they didn;t even know if the record would come out, if they even had a label). If you like this record, or find it too hard to understand fully, pick up "Magnified" it's amazing as well, a little simpler, and pick up "Comfort" if you like Steve Albini (which I do as well). OK, enjoy.

I found this album amidst a stack of CDs in the basement of a college radio station in Central Illinois. The station overlords had a practice of affixing post-it notes to the CD covers, documenting their curt peremptory dictates on whether the contents were suitable for wider (but yet still ridiculously limited) consumption. The post-it note on Failure's "Fantastic Planet" read simply, "Boom!!! Here it is!!!" (this was 1997 and people still talked like that in 1997). I think that got the point across rather well - certainly much better than that piece of hideous hyperanalysis at allmusic dot com. "Fantastic Planet" sits proudly alongside the likes of Radiohead's "O.K. Computer" as one of the select few truly innovative, truly coherent, truly accomplished albums of the '90s. It is the kind of masterpiece that comes along every once in so very long. You remain ignorant of it at your own peril.

You have to be impressed with the evolution of Failure over the course of their three albums. After picking up Fantastic Planet about 3 years ago, I checked out Comfort and Magnified. Comfort was good, if derivative Steve Albini-porduced indie rock. Magnified was decidedly more ambitious, but lacked cohesion and that certain something that became part of Fantastic Planet. Both albums were still very good, but all the elements came together in this masterwork. Failure concocts the first hard rocking concept album I've ever heard with FP. The album starts off with the dynamic "Saturday Saviour" and the exhilarating "Sergeant Politeness" and doesn't let up. Blistering rock tunes eventually give way to spacy slower songs and ambitious epics, which symbolize the resolution to some type of turbulence that was present in the beginning. Each of the segues provide a departure from what is going on at the time. On the whole, this album takes you places where no insipid Top 40 act ever will. Best tracks on the album would have to be "Smoking Umbrellas", "Solaris", "Leo", "Stuck On You", and "Heliotropic" (all are awesome, though they are all very different) but the entire album is great and will hold your interest from beginning to end. Definitely pick this album up if you're looking for something out of the ordinary.

This was the third and (unfortunately) final album from L.A. rockers Failure, but that doesn't come as too much of a surprise - Warner Bros. promoted it poorly when it came out and didn't do enough to put Failure's name out there. This album should have received reviews in major periodicals, but I could not find them anywhere. The split also didn't come as much of a surprise, because where could Failure go after this album? After expanding the parameters of their sound and improving vastly on their other albums (which were still very good, mind you), what could Failure have done for an encore?

Now, to the album - the textured art rock of Pink Floyd and distorted guitars of Nirvana are touchstones, but so is the dissonant dream pop sound of bands like My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver. The latter influences are more prevalent on Fantastic Planet than on previous Failure albums. But Failure manages to combine these influences and create a distinctive sound that isn't derivative of any other band out there.

The album's first single was "Stuck On You", a song that would have fit in perfect along with the Bush and Radiohead hits of 1996, and the lyrics gave the song a unique distinction - you don't hear bands writing about songs being stuck in their heads too often. "Pillowhead" features arpeggiating acoustic guitars giving way to a punkish fervor in the chorus. The melancholy vibes of songs like "The Nurse Who Loved Me", "Blank" and "Another Space Song" add some diversity to the album. But the most dynamic songs are the ones that are perhaps the album's strongest ("Stuck On You", "Sergeant Politeness", "Pitiful") - these are definitely the songs to play for someone who hasn't heard the band before.

The album even has kind of a loose concept, of which alienation seems to be a recurring theme. However, the concept is not an obvious one - it allows you to draw your own conclusion and use your imagination. After listening to this album, I still uncover several nuances that weren't present at other times. With 17 tracks at a running time of 68 minutes, this album is definitely worth your time - I highly recommend it.

I'M PLAYING THIS RIGHT NOW, AND I'M PLAYING IT REALLY LOUD!!!!!

Few albums in the history of rock music have come as close to perfection as this dreamy,, inward journey.

The opening cut "Sergeant Politeness" is fairly one-dimensional, but follows suit of their previous work "Magnified" which opens with the closing sounds of the ITS predecessor "Comfort" (get it??). The riff echoes the end of the last work, creating a thread of continuity between all three albums by this incredible band that goes to great lengths to carry a mood.

Lyrics often portray vivid situations that range from the quaint ('Down by the railrod tracks/I will enjoy you' from "Pitiful") to the disturbingly surreal in "Smoking Umbrellas" ('Woke up in my warm bed/Just in time for all the billion red lights') where the narrative plays like a German expressionist film. As in previous albums, the dominant mood here is of a bedridden navel-gazing protagonist who reels from drug-induced hallucinations. "Dirty Blue Balloons" is a hard-hitting ode to serious drug use ('I got high/From scrapings from my nails') steeped in a colossal guitar-plod. In the delicate intro to "Solaris" Andrews' soothing voice confesses 'I've been freezing my time' only to be propelled into a defensive paraniod rant as the song builds, falls gently away, and builds again as if passing through manic states. He offers an invitation into his world in the closing cut "Daylight" ('I've got a catacomb/Of fur-covered styrofoam/So come on over now/ And sleep') and also reveals what kind of company he seeks in "Pillowhead", a 2-minute burst of radiance that praises a junkie girlfriend and finally winds up admitting "I'll spend my life/Wasting away." A slap of reality is projected onto another bedridden character ("LEO") who '..woke up in his bed again/Startled by all his familiar friends'.

Reality can't get much farther away than in the highly amusing fantasy "The Nurse Who Loved Me", which is told from the delusional point of view of an institutionalized patient who is requested to 'Say hello/To the rug's topography/It holds quite a lot of interest with your face down on it'. The chorus resounds over huge, pounding drums like strobe lights: 'She's falling hard for me/ I can see it in her eyes/ She acts just like a nurse/ With all the other guys'. As if this weren't out there enough, we get a real treat in "Another Space Song" where Andrews reports amid a beautiful, whirling backdrop that 'The solar panel's shining face/Is smiling back at me'.

The deepest irony of these themes is that their presentation is not shrouded in a dark underbelly of aural paranoia, but in graceful, dreamlike densities that sound comletely original and familiar at the same time. Let this album be your sole companion for an hour - after all, 'It's o.k. to be lonely' ("Another Space Song").

I first heard this cd in 2001 from a friend's suggestion, or rather, he kept playing it & I ended up listening to it a lot as a result... & I STILL feel like I missed out on hearing it from '96-2000!! However, this wasn't one of those albums I casually listened to a few times, thought "oh, this is cool, I'll hear it again someday", & then barely touched it again. This cd still manages to creep its way back into my rotation for unknown reasons. I say unknown because there really isn't just that one song you want to listen to because it gets stuck in your head, & then put on something else. Once I pop it in, I almost always feel compelled to listen to the entire thing, even if I have to break it up (like a normal car trip that takes 30 minutes in either direction), which is exactly why I love to save this for road trips... it deserves to be listened to in its entirety every freaking time, & it also deserves to have the word "Fantastic" in its title. To say this album is underrated is an understatement... it's been downright neglected. I will say it prolly hasn't caught on to mainstream listeners cuz of its length (think of The Cure - Disintegration, as far as epic length), & even though it has some catchy songs, they're not generic sing-along catchy. The chord changes can be very interesting, the bass lines move (esp. in your car speakers!), & the drums can be really powerful. As for the vocals, he can whisper at times, & then really come out, but never forcefully. His voice reminds me of Gavin Rossdale of Bush the closest... but even better. It's hard to even compare this band to others, or even make a "if you like {insert band here}, you'll like this" kind of statement. In general, if you like good interesting rock music, just listen for yourself... you'll be glad you did.... & you'll also be dumbfounded as to what to put on next.

Typical song synopsis, influenced from driving while I listen to this most of the time:
1 - excellent mid-tempo moody opener
2 - more "alterna-rock" feeling, & a good early evening song when the sun's fading away
3 - don't skip the segues, they're exactly that, but very cool
4 - mid-tempo w/ a cool bass line
5 - if you're driving, watch the foot pedal... this will make you want to speed... & bop your head too
6 - cool slow song; i love the spirally flange guitar effect
7 - slower segue
8 - another mid-tempo song; i love when the dynamic picks up
9 - more up-tempo; one of my favorites
10 - another of my favorites; i LOVE the sliding bass
11 - ok, this is my least favorite, & I think it's a lot of people's least favorite; it's not bad by any means though
12 - very mysterious segue; my favorite of the 3
13 - i LOVE this one; it seems to be the 1st song of the rest of the album
14 - this is the song that initially got me into the rest of this; the creepy, slightly out of tune harmonic-y guitar part is just way cool; my 2nd favorite
15 - i realized in 2001 that i remember seeing this single vaguely on eMpTV back in '97... but it wasn't rotated very much, & like i said, i missed out on the rest of this album for a few years too long
16 - words can NOT express this song... it's AMAZING!! no doubt my favorite here. it's so creepy & good, & it STILL gives me chills. don't even hear a clip, just buy this cd, crank it up, turn off the lights, & sit back, it's that good
17 - excellent closing track w/ more cool creepy effects from an out of tune piano; never has out-of-tune sounded this cool, & the dynamic change is, well, dynamic