Customer Reviews

Supersonic Storybook

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

 

 

Like anyone paying any attention to anything in the mid-1990s, I knew that Urge Overkill did a great cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be A Women Soon," but I was buying the Beach Boys and tons of free jazz, so that was about my urge's extent.
'
So this album comes as quite a surprise, as did the song "Emmaline," when I heard it on my beloved WFMU*.

But if Supersonic Storybook is representative, I'm in. I saw several reviews of this here knocking the raw production, but to me, this is the easy sell. In a digital compressed world, where guitars at volume 10 don't bite anymore, the red meat, almost live audio here is quite a freshener. You almost get the sense you are hearing one of those never made it 1970s English hard rock bands that recorded an album in a day and that you now pay $35 on an import label.

Urge Overkill are great players--they are not going to be doing atonal jazz anytime soon but for this type of hard rock they have perfect prowess-and the kicker are the Memphis style female back up singers which are superimposed masterfully onto this bare bones mix.

*WMFU is a free form radio station which plays anything any time. I get nothing from plugging them but if you hate formatted Oscar Mayer hot dog radio as passionately as I do, your oasis lays here.

Initially, I had some major misgiving about this CD. Even after multiple spins, I couldn't get past what I felt was overly shoddy production, a half-baked aura and, quite simply, mostly lame songs. In short, it was hard for me to fathom what was attracting the major labels to this band back in the early 1990s. Further listening, however, has proved me wrong. No, not every tune on this nine-song disc is complete ear candy -- but the ones that lean in a more melodic direction do make it worthwhile. If you're a big fan of the great Urge Overkill, then "The Supersonic Storybook" is ultimately a must-have. And strangely, the album's roughness actually begins to make sense after a while, as if UO needed to get its bugs out before switching to a more polished sound on future CDs.

With its scrubby looseness, organ work, crowd-happy infectiousness and chunky guitars, "The Kids are Insane" was a perfect song to lead off this album. It's followed by the more somber but even better "The Candidate," which, unbelievingly, ranks as one of my favorite UO rockers ever. The song seems to be an odd melding of politics and love, and soundwise, it offers the addictive, melodic rhythm guitar work that UO would put forth so fluidly on future CDs. Keeping listeners on their toes, "The Candidate" undergoes a complete transformation by song's end, segueing into somewhat less worthy but still interesting fare.

"(Today is) Blackie's Birthday," though loose, fun and fast, comes off as an internal birthday present for the band only, right before the major celebrating goes down (hard to believe Blackie was just 22; wow, how time flies!). "Emmaline" is a more substantial blues-ish track sung soulfully by Nash Kato, which resonates with time. Equally as groovin' and soulful is the cool "Bionic Revolution" sung with gusto by the talented King Roeser and guest musician Lynn Jordan. Heavy, grunge-like riffing is prominent on "What is Artane?" and the much more melodic and worthy closer, "Theme from Navajo," which offers raw, swirling guitar and almost inaudible vocals that somehow are forgivable amid the fetching crunch of surrounding noise. The only throwaway tune is the odd "Henhough," but don't let that stop you from enjoying this brawny UO disc.

And to think I almost got rid of it at one point.

Supersonic Storybook starts off real well with "The Kids Are Insane". When King says "Can ya hear me U.O.?" you know they have some style and confidence. Songs like "Candidate" "What Is Artane?", and "Vacation In Tokyo" aren't bad, but the muddy singing and playing undercut the songs. "Emmaline" is a decent slower song. "Blackie's Birthday" and "Henhough" are basically novelty songs. "Bionic Revolution" is a fun (mostly) instrumental, and "Navajo" is a more thoughtful (mostly) instrumental to close the album out. It's not bad, but the best is yet to come from this trio.

Urge Overkill fit right in with the explosion of diverse, energetic, out-of-left-field talent that had overwhelmed rock music by the early nineties. Their look definitely set them apart from other alternative bands of that era, and earned them their fair share of scorn as well. This disc finds them at their absolute peak. My favorite song on the album is "What is Artane?" [], but there really isn't a bad cut on it. They had a remarkably funky, tight sound for a "grungy" three piece. As Nash Kato once put it, starting a band should be like declaring war. In their case, it was a war against taking yourself too seriously. Don't get the wrong impression though, despite their sense of humor and their unmistakable shtik, they were definitely not just a wacky, goofball, one joke sort of band. You can certainly tell there's some sharp-edged, whiteboy soul behind those saucey grins. "Emmaline", "The Kids are Insane", and "The Candidate" constitute some of the remaining standout material you'll find on this unheralded classic.

This band in their prime absolutely blew me away. This album was my introduction to this band and still, to this day, remains my favorite. Songs like "The Kids Are Insane", "The Candidate", "Bionic Revolution", and of course thier take on the Hot Chocolate Classic "Emma" retooled and retitled "Emmaline". This is a classic album from a classic band. To some these guys were a cartoon, sipping martinis and whatnot. .... Everyone that ragged on them for the "UO look" were out buying matching suits the next day and starting thier own rock band. Unfortunately for the listening public the imitations pulled off the look to an extent, but could never recreate the quality of music these guys created. Buy this one! NOW!

This is well worth listening to, like most of UO's material. The Hot Chocolate cover is worth the price alone.

This record is horrific. I got it more to be a completist after loving their more polished, later stuff. Most of it is unlistenable ("Emmaline" is OK). After reading about all the "controversy" within the indie community when UO left to make professional recordings, I concluded that it's all jealousy. If the hippies could make professional records like "Saturation" (or even "Exit the Dragon", although that one's not fantastic either) they all would. If they say they wouldn't, they're lying or delusional.

Love UO but they went the wrong way with this record. None of the songs really stand out and then the album descends into a some kind of a Powwow at the end. Didn't last long in my truck at all.