MIEZE

Mieze (2004), Marco's fifth studio album, follows an interesting run of releases, stylistically disparate from one to the next. You can see my reviews and ratings for each--as I've been slowly delving chronologically into his discography from the start--and every time I'm just hoping for another of the first two albums' caliber. I highly recommend both: The Green Mindbomb (1998) and Comfortably Homeless (2000). Unlike the "intimate production" of singer-songwriter-Marco's third, Orchids (2002), or the less-consistent Jazz Fusion album, Broken Orange (2003), those first two are balls-to-the-wall, hyper-dynamic and multi-faceted pieces of art. Despite what the credits say here, according to his official website (which also provides little in the way of crediting information generally, even to himself), Paul Gilbert actually performs guitar solos on not just one, but four of the songs. Welcomed, indeed! At over an hour, I hadn't realized initially how long this album was.

Praise be! On our opener, "Freedom, Money, Got No Time", we are back firmly in more or less Fusion territory [for now]. But it has a kind of... Indie Pop Rock chorus? Hard to place. The verses are rather atonal; a fun guitar solo here; a decent opener. Pop Rock continues more obviously on "Ourselves", with, I hear, Jason Falkner-esque (Jellyfish, The Grays, Beck) vocal melodies. Just really forward-driving, infectious Power Pop, and here it's gotta be one of those aforementioned Gilbert solos toward the end. I really like this. Questionable appeal to Prog fans, and yet I highly recommend it [see my note at the end of the review].

Then, quirky Funk Fusion, reminiscent in tone to Mike Keneally (especially harmonically), on "Katze" (from the perspective of a cat?). It goes and goes and then there's this wacky guitar solo here, too. "30th Century Fox" returns to radio-ready but obviously very well-performed Pop Rock. I feel moreso than on prior releases, Marco's vocal performances are a bit stronger throughout. I am really so curious about who his inspirations were for this musical mode, but I'm so for it. Totally on its own is the soft and personal "Defragmentation Day".

To further obscure where we're coming from on this album, "Wha Doesn't She Call Me" is like the poppy Punk of early Fountains Of Wayne or... Sloan? No expectation from others on the site, but I really enjoyed this. "Whenever" is a return to that Jason Falkner type thing. And again, not to confuse anyone, but Marco and Mike Keneally do have these '90s Power Pop contemporaries that are rightly inescapable and simultaneously highly respected. If you can't tell, I'm really into this stuff. Even so, "Whenever" has proggy trills throughout. There's daring within these apparently simple compositions.

Huge tonal shift occurs on "Paul's House", a soft, piano-led instrumental piece, with ambience and accompanying acoustic guitar. Continuing in the softness is the somewhat textured "What If?" It's a 'merp' from me, dawg. Onto the next, with a bit more goin' on, we have "This Song". Sort of melody I would expect from The Posies' Ken Stringfellow or the [likewisd] insanely talented Spookey Ruben (two other Power Pop contemporaries): if you're into Guitar/Power Pop, one of my favorite albums is the former's Frosting on the Beater (1993), and for Spookey, check out the wild, if not unhinged, Power Pop song "These Days Are Old" and his album Bed (2001). "This Song" picks up hard with a really cool upbeat drum rhythm from Marco. And a nice melodic guitar solo here.

Keneally vibes are back on the upbeat "Passenger"! Woah! The solo here is fun! Great song! [On a song-by- song basis (to explain once and for all), since much of this, though well performed, is surely not Prog nor even proggy, if I deem a song "personally" excellent, I'm giving it a 3.5/5.0.] Glimpses of Fusion appear on the frontend of "Reflections", a Raga-rooted and psychedelic Jangle Rock number. Wow... the bass here is performed by Marco?! He's really so talented; I mean it: he's just so well-rounded. I think the refrain is great, but I can see how people might find the verses a bit cheesy.

Some interesting ideas on "Windows". Largely ambient and, I can't help it, harmonically returning to Keneally flavoring. Midway through, Marco introduces raucous drums. There's some very odd effects and random sounds throughout. I'm not a fan of that, but it doesn't totally tarnish the song. But... hmmm... This vibe continues on "So Much Water". Not great haha, but at least it's better executed here to my ears... But then this solo! Woah! That came out of nowhere, but... good fit(!).

Finally, we are back into some much welcomed quirk on "Air". Super cool song. Its only real mark against it is its length (hmmm... I feel the same could be said of the album as a whole haha). I feel as though his stylistic choices on this album were very consistent, whether you like it, love it or hate it. And that's a mark of quality in my book (albeit a minor mark). Finally finally we have "Just the Village Girl". And... I'm not sure about this intro... or this song... Country vibes?... I'll say it: bad closer. Oof.

Mieze is mostly consistent in quality, though, as stated, very consistent in style. The degree to which this will appeal to your average Prog fan is wanting and questionable. True Rate barely rounded up to 3.