TROUBLE WITH MACHINES

DISTRICT 97 began life playing live around the city of Chicago in the 90's. A young band of players, playing all instrumental music in the LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT style. Before recording an album they decided that adding a vocalist would help them make more waves in the music world. And so enter American Idol finalist Leslie Hunt who gives them some exposure, while at the same time they change to a slightly more commercial sound. That commercial sound mostly comes from Leslie's singing, in fact if this was all instrumental it would be a Heavy Prog record, but with her singing Crossover.

I acknowledge that the lady can sing, I'm just not into her style or voice at times. I feel this way about the whole album really, as I find it very hit and miss. It wasn't a good sign when after my first listen I really did not want to play it again. And for me it's the vocals. And speaking of vocals we get John Wetton singing co-lead on the 10 minute "Perfect Young Man". Some guest violin as well on "Read Your Mind" which changes the sound quite a bit. They flirt with metal at times but also use a lot of piano. A nice heavy recording overall.

Metal comes to the fore on the opener "Back And Forth" with her rebel yell sort of speak and sound that I really like 3 minutes in and later at 8 minutes. This is probably my least favourite song when it comes to her vocals. Almost whiny but familiar as in commercial sounding. "Open our Eyes" is my second least favourite, so now you can see why I had such a hard time playing this one several times. The next track "The Actual Color" is better with the repeated themes, wordless vocals and intense opening.

I mentioned "The Perfect Young Man" earlier, and it doesn't even sound like Wetton, although I know he's a lot older here in 1997. I don't like her style of singing here. And while this track is excellent overall, I'm not all in. "Who cares?" is a good rocking number, but again the vocals after 2 minutes leave a lot to be desired. "Read Your Mind" has the violin and some heaviness in the metal realm 5 minutes in. The closer "The Thief" is the longest at almost 14 minutes. A ride as they say. And this might be their best song on here. The heaviness at times is impressive and that metal is lightly sprinkled throughout. It comes and goes. Synths lead very briefly 8 minutes in, and I swear I heard mandolin 2 1/2 minutes in.

A good album but less vocals and more keyboards would be awesome. I am happy to see that she continues to be the band's singer as they are now five studio albums in, with the latest from 2023.