VIM Review

Not impressive. There are some good songs, but the choppy, riff-driven arrangements don’t really do them justice. Anderson does make good use of the Chamberlin to bring strings and other sounds into the mix. Real strings would have been cooler, although honestly he could have achieved the same sweeping, sustained feel from an electric slide guitar. Strings can sound good, but they aren’t very rockin’, are they? There’s a great little riff in Again when Shaffer starts singing the lines that begin, “I don’t care about your open books . . .”, but the guitar work on this track is largely simple and predictable. The inescapable problem with this song, though, is the “wall of back up singers.” When they join Shaffer for the “Again, Again” chorus, their contribution sounds completely artificial and over-produced. It’s common to stack vocal tracks to make them sound richer and more full (check out Blanket Inside from Welcome to The Why Store for a more subtle example), but Anderson’s heavy handed approach to this technique is flinch-inducing.

Polly Brillikis’s backing vocals on Beautiful World also sound canned, but here the treatment yields much smoother results. Brillikis sounds ethereal, ghostly even, and her airy vocals enrich the mood of the song. Even better, Shaffer’s singing and playing are at the center of this song. His unique voice and his 12-string guitar have been the musician’s mainstay for years and Beautiful World clearly demonstrates why. He also flexes his harmonica muscles nicely, revealing a talent for the harp not previously captured in the studio. In contrast, the “shoo be doo wop” chorus reminds listeners of Shaffer’s penchant for writing pop candy melodies and belies the alterna-rocker persona he seems to embrace on this cd.

What The Hell should be the first ass-kicking rocker on the disc, but it’s not. Composed of power chords and a 4/4 time signature, filtered vocals and deleted profanity, What the Hell plays like the first chapter from “The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Rock Singles.” This song has a lot of attitude, and it can be a barnburner when performed live, but this version robs it of its essence. Are we really living in a world where James Taylor can record “fuck,” but Chris Shaffer won’t? Take the dress off, Shaffer. This is rock’n roll; louder is ALWAYS better, and if you lack the stones to drop the f-bomb, then just don’t go there. And the idea of filtering Shaffer’s rich vocals is just silly. He doesn’t need it, and the only obvious intent is to make What the Hell sound like one of dozens of indistinguishable tunes being played on adult alternative format radio stations. Stripping the track down to bare bones during the “Every day is a new day” segment works nicely, especially when the guitars and drums come crashing back in immediately after. Anderson introduces some inspired soloing, flicking some nice melodic lead lines over, under, and in between Shaffer’s repetitions of the main theme (“Started out good,” etc.), while at the same time driving the rhythm as hard as ever until the song dissolves into its end.

Sooner Than Later IS the first true balls to the wall track on the project. This song was born a long time ago, and has finally grown up into a scorcher. It’s immediately demanding. Shaffer lets out a scream that is almost more of a wail, setting the tone right away. John Pierce comes in with a sinister bass line, which grows round and fat and hypnotic. The bulk of the song highlights Shaffer’s vocals supported by drums and bass, and punctuated by piercing guitar elements, but that doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story. Slowing the tempo down from its original version was in this case a master stroke. The repetitive nature of the composition translates into an ever-building tension that pays off with sweet release towards the end of the piece. The lines, “When you make it to heaven . . .” have been filtered, but with better results than on WTH. In the first place, it’s less noticeable; furthermore the treatment helps to set the bridge apart from the rest of the song. It’s a smooth transition from filtered Shaffer to unfiltered Shaffer singing the “Paybacks are coming” bit. Someone (Scot Coogan on drums?) calls out a commanding count to get back to the song and this time it’s Anderson who picks up the “Sooner Than Later” refrain. Shaffer quickly replaces him on lead vocals to finish the lyrics, then exits on a scream, leaving Anderson plenty of room for sonic exploration. Anderson’s session and road work with major artists such as Paul McCartney, Neil Diamond and Courtney Love have often been the subject of discussion, but his solo work, identified equally as pyschedelic, pop, progressive and hard rock, is not to be overlooked.

Wake Up is another recycled tune – one that suffers from Anderson’s arrangements. In the original version of the song, the weighty subject matter is offset by a light, swirling, bouncy guitar line, creating an interesting contrast and a crowd favorite. Here, dexterous playing is replaced by clunky chord strumming. The ponderous material is matched with a somber tone and slow pace. This creates a sharper distinction between the verses and chorus, a distinction so strong that the parts of the song seem unrelated. Anderson does let off a few hot licks, but the descending chords in the bridge are predictable and uninteresting. She’s A Diamond is a throw-away also, a thank you to Anderson for producing the record. Anderson’s lyrics are trite, the playing is minimalist, and it’s hard to know whether the chorus pays homage to Cab Calloway or Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo. Shaffer’s vocal performance is all there is to this song and his delivery serves to make this song palatable.

Next, coiled like a glistening turd as the centerpiece of this album is Run Around Wasted. This song has 3 separate elements that could conceivably make for a good song. There’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers flavored sections (“Gotta run around gotta run around wasted”), the “Say what you want” pieces, and the wordless vocal parts (Ah Ah – Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah). Apparently Shaffer and Anderson could not come up with a way to make the disparate sections work well together. Instead they’ve inserted Zeppelin-esque self-indulgent filler masquerading as heady pyschedelia. This extends the track to over 10 minutes in length, an unpardonable lack of control on a cd which in total running time is well under an hour. Moreover, the transitional sections are utterly unrelated to the other sections of the song, the drumming being the only tether running throughout

The rest of the disc is filled with songs of self-pity. Shaffer refers to his fundamentally unsatisfiable nature on each track. The familiar themes of substance abuse and failed relationships are visited and revisited. Departure and Share The Stage are mournful dirges, lacking in musicality and made barely tolerable by keeping focus on Shaffer’s singing. I Want More and Stone Cold Sober fall back on the hard rock theme of the disc, making for solid versions of so-so songs.