HABITAT

Somehow I anticipated great things with this album.....and I have to say......WHAT A HUGE DISSAPOINTMENT. I have so many issues with this album......starting with the whole CONCEPT. It's been done, and much better I might add. ACT's album "Last Epic" was about a building and all its inhabitants.....Man On Fire expanded the concept to a block. What they missed was strong material. The songs are uniformly weak and meandering. There is little sense of cohesiveness or melody. "The Block" is the lone shining moment, with singer Jeff Hodges sounding like Michael Jackson. The rest of the album he sounds like a very poor approximation of Geddy Lee. Though there are some interesting keyboard moments throughout the album, what is lacking is melody, direction, and the solid backing of a conventional guitar player. Adrian Belew's playing more often than not sounds like a dying animal. He has ALWAYS been only a cult guitar hero because MOST folks grow tired of his style of playing after about 2 minutes. Though the album is very well produced in terms of overall sound quality, it is cluttered and noisy. The only positive for me is the cd booklet art.....very well done....aside from that............ouch!