ANCHOR DROPS

Indiana's own UMPHREY'S MCGEE are a six piece unit who have been playing dynamic and complex music since the late 90's, but at the same time the vocals and lyrics play an important part. So while this borders on Math Rock much of the time the vocals bring this back to earth even if they sound immature at times. I have their "Mantis" album that was released five years after this and I can't believe how different they sound. They grew up I guess. This is a 14 song adventure that I have been spinning for weeks because I know when I review it, it gets put away, and I love this record. "Anchor Drops" is unbelievably consistent for having 14 tracks, in fact there are only a few songs that don't measure up to the rest. A true 5 star release in my opinion.

By the way these guys have proven themselves to the music world that they can play this stuff live, they are an in demand band. A lot of jazz based stuff too which I like but they can get aggressive veering into Metal territory. There's just so many amazing tunes on here, one after another, after another. Two guitarists, two percussionists along with keyboards and bass. I was most impressed with the drummer but man this is a musicians album. Quite a bit of humour too in some of the lyrics. Lots of attitude.

There are so many highlights but I'll try to keep it to a minimum. I like how they use various samples on several of these songs too. One of the biggest surprises after hearing the first three tracks is a straight up Country tune with a guest female singer adding mostly backing vocals. This is legit and maybe the best Country tune I've ever heard. On the chorus he cries "Fortune was made but I lost it twice...". Interesting that they follow that up with "Miss Tinkle's Overture" a lights out, fast paced instrumental.

Then we get a funny track called "Uncommon" with lyrics like "Something about me stinks, something about me smells..." The instrumental work is great here. I really like "Walletsworth" opening with samples then a bass line before it all kicks in. Organ here and humour. Nasty synths vibrate the soundscape on "Robot World" and synths rule here but this is pretty cool. The drumming is incredible. "Wife Soup" has my favourite section on it, just so uplifting and it is repeated, but it first appears 3 minutes in. Guest sax and trombone on this one. The closer is light and pretty and it just seems like the right way to end this recording.

A Prog lover's dream with the playing and the compositions that are contrasted with the humour and vocals.

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