Hi, for starters wonderful weblog, but is any person else seeing the sidebar all messed up making use of firefox edition two? It truly is pushed about to your centre for me. =-=
I have always had mixed feelings about the Magnet but always had a soft spot too. MM is one of those bands I have loved in parts over the years but have always just fell short of the high expectations I had for them. Great live band though if you get the chance.
But when the needle hits the groove (as they used to say) this is the best possible start I could have imagined: ‘Hallucination Bomb’ with its Sabbath-like riff on fire is a kick ass opener for sure and an amazing song to be hit with first up. We keep the fire burning for the rock-out that is ‘Bored With Sorcery’. I’m already starting to ask the big question: is this it? Is this the album that will hit those expectations? Is this going to be THE Monster magnet album?
Sadly the answer appears to be ‘no’. Like a sprinter leading the 400m, after that burst of energy things seem to tail off and we are left with what amounts to just another Monster Magnet album. By that I mean fantastic in parts, cool enough in others and then we tip in the filler.
Hey it’s a good album though, and fans will appreciate the high points which for me have to be the opening pair and title track ‘Mastermind’ which in my opinion are all better than first single ‘Gods and Punks’ which smells like an attempt at cool stripped back alt-rock with a splash of White Stripes. In truth it’s not a bad song it just misses a trick in the chorus that might have just tipped it into classic territory.
Other cool moments include: the stoned ‘Dig That Hole’ that tries hard and almost gets there; the dark and brooding ‘The Titan Who Cried Like a Baby’ which is a definite grower with a great Gothic-vibe; and the rock out of ‘100 Million Miles’.
Decent enough with traces of genius! If only Dave had trained for the 400m instead.
