#49: Schizoid Lloyd - The Last Note in God's Magnum OpusWhoo boy, this album. It's... hmm. On one hand, it's alright. Certainly could be worse. On the other hand... man, do I really want to like this more than I do. I heard the first track a fair number of times before actually getting the album, which led me to high expectations, since the first track is actually quite good. It's got a lot of weirdness to it and it's kind of a mess, but its creativity and coherence keeps it an enjoyable listen. It's "wacky prog crap" done well.
Unfortunately the rest of the album doesn't quite skew in that direction. I'm all for music not taking itself too seriously, and I don't think they go too far into "wacky" territory more than a small amount of times, but a lot of other times... it's comparatively normal, and often not as engaging. I have to worry if they're not capable of writing really good songs when they're not being weird, even though Suicide Penguin should prove otherwise. Ehh.
Suicide Penguin probably works so well because it's wacky, but has a solid core to it that the flourishes of weirdness add to instead of overshadowing. The circus organ and choir in the opening, the "Allelujah" bit in the middle, along with all its other various oddities, are mixed in with some intense and engaging riffing, though every instrument is given its own time to shine. It's got a good sense of flow that keeps it coherent.
Most of the other songs are much less diverse, however. Christmas Devil, Avalanche Riders, and Cave Painter all suffer heavily from a lack of dynamics; the first is just a solid wall of noise from beginning to end, the second keeps a medium loudness throughout, mostly sticking to holding a groove, and the third is a constant frantic energy that relies on its medium heaviness to keep it going. They're all relatively simple songs compared to the opener, and they're all solid enough, but not especially compelling.
Amphibian Seer also keeps to a central groove throughout, though it has more dynamics to it to keep it interesting, some heaviness, some quieter groove in the middle, and some in-between moments as well. I really dislike the lyrics of this song though, brings the whole thing down a notch for me. Chicken Wing Swans spends a few minutes stuck on one groove, cutting to a softer piano bit for a while, and a more intense final few minutes, but each of these sections on their own sticks pretty heavily to its chosen volume and the track is rather nondescript beyond the phases it goes through.
The low point of the album, for me, is the overly long Film Noir Hero, which is a piano and vocal track that just feels like it plods on and on for a minute and a half longer than it should. There's no consistent rhythm and there's a lot of showboating that doesn't really add to anything. The final track, Prodigal Son, provides a solid contrast, having more than just the acoustic guitar that drives the song to keep its atmosphere interesting, accompanied by probably the best and most emotive vocal performance of the album in contrast to the oversinging of Film Noir Hero.
That just leaves two songs to comment on, and they're certainly better tracks for their diversity and dynamics. Misanthrope Puppet is probably the strangest track of the album, its "chorus" being delivered as a circus announcer trying to rap, but it works surprisingly well, probably aided by the bright organ and guitar backing it. The song has a strong groove to keep it grounded even at its weirder moments, and the first verse has a nice sinister tone to the vocals. The crushing heaviness of the ending also punctuates the song nicely, even if it feels a bit disconnected from the rest.
And Citizen Herd... hmm. It's an unfortunate tragedy of the song. The first third has a nice atmosphere to it, some somber synths contrasting with frantic drumwork, and a constantly building sense of tension. It takes its time but it's clear that's building to something. The last third of the song builds up on a riff to the most intense climax of the entire album, it's absolutely visceral and chaotic. It gives way to a very soft and somber finale. Everything I've described thus far is pretty good. So what's the problem? They couldn't resist... there's just an absolute disaster of an instrumental section in the middle of the song, with some notably awful keyboard work and lacking any sort of compelling riffs or grooves. It's just two and a half solid minutes of showboating pointlessly and brings the song to a halt. Really, this could've been the highlight of the album if not for this middle section but I really can't forgive that much time wasting.
Some overarching problems with the album, aside from each song's individual problems, then. One, that circus organ gets oooold. It's not particularly fitting for a lot of the songs but it's the primary keyboard sound used, though thankfully not exclusively. I also don't find this album to have a very strong emotional core. There are moments of effectiveness, most notably the softer moments of Citizen Herd and the entirety of Prodigal Son, but beyond that I don't get much from this emotionally. And it often fails to please on a technical level, too; the prog noodling on this album is generally its weakest aspect, and there aren't a huge number of cool riffs, though there are at least a few.
Overall though, it's "solid". I can't say even the weakest tracks are "bad", just merely "okay". There's only really one track I think is excellent, and two others that are pretty good though not particularly fantastic either. And the rest are... good, decent, alright. But when so little of the album compels me one way or another, it's hard to enjoy the album as a whole, and considering the strength of its opener I was really expecting more out of this album than I got. It's not that weird, it's not that crazy, it's kind of a facade that betrays the real nature of the album, and maybe it's my fault for having expectations that couldn't be met, but I just don't feel much of a drive to revisit this one.
Favorite Tracks: Suicide Penguin, Misanthrope Puppet, Citizen Herd
Least Favorite Track: Film Noir Hero
6.25/10DTF Addendum: The trend of the past 5 or so albums and probably for the next 10 or so after is me wishing I liked the album more than I actually do, which is really frustrating. You guys know I'm not being a downer just for the sake of being a downer right? Just stuff that never clicked for me but I kinda like a decent bit.