Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History (2004)
The album opens with a foreboding ambience. A low hum with accents of distant scratching and growls. Louder and closer, all approaching until a strangely quaint chorus interjects. Lead by the deep and sometimes frightening voice of Nils Frykdahl. If the first 3 minutes of this album are any indication, you will be in for an experience that is varied at best and neurotic at it's delightful worst.
"Of Natural History" is staged as a debate between The Futurist movement and The Freedom Club. With all the pomp and circumstance of esoteric metaphor the album intends to elaborate on the ideas of anti-humanism and what it means for us. Yes...this is kind of artsy heavy-handed pretentiousness. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (SGM) have a surprising ability to make that sort of thing work. Without getting into the backstory (that you can certainly find on your own) this is a band of very familiar people that have worked extensively in theatre and music, and it shows. There is a kind of theatrical quality to their music, it isn't so much a passing ditty or song to explain a feeling. Their music has a narrative quality to it, building climaxes, sudden twists and all sorts of interesting moments which keep any one track from being repetitive.
Of course if nothing else the elephant in the room is the fact that this is not everyones' cup of tea. Or even your glass of scotch, if you will. This is some hard music to swallow at first and I admit that it took me a while to get into. Like wine, coffee or anything with a really strong flavor you will need to get used to the taste of SGM, for their lyrics and writing as much as the music itself. They admit to the ironic tone of their music but claim their hypocritical use of electric instruments is of the most sincere intentions. I suppose if they are truly humorists that would be the bigger joke. It's hard to say. The only obvious thing to mention is that there is scarcely a major chord to be found on the entire album. They delight in atonal discord and polyrhythmic passages, the type which are designed to do anything but create that fat and happy feeling. The sound jumps around from dark ambient to death metal and makes all sorts of departures in between.
This is a band I highly recommend to any serious nerd for music. Or a beginning nerd to music really. This kind of band can give you all sorts of insights in to the kind of possibilities a modern rock band has, and it completely changes your standards. This album, in my mind, is their greatest work. It has maintained to be amongst my top favorites for some time now, and for good reason. Devote the time you have to hear the entire album, don't skip around and don't do it too distracted. Perhaps listen on a long drive, or just sit quietly with some speakers (there are worse ways to spend an hour). And anyway, if you don't like it you can return it for a full refund of your purchase price.
Recommended tracks: Babydoctor, Phthisis, FC The Freedom Club, Cockroach
Genres: Rock, Experimental, Metal
Links (yeah, two of them, it's a big album!):
Pt. 1: http://www.mediafire.com(SLASH)?yarnnzhllji
Pt. 2: http://www.mediafire.com(SLASH)?ykd1mwhyxyy
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