Back when Beck first burst onto the scene, I didn’t understand
\nwhat the big deal was about him. To my untrained ear, he seemed
\nlike free-association Jean-Paul Sartre set to a rough acoustic
\nbeat. I wrote him off as a passing fad… that, along with the
\npolyester leisure suit I bought for a wedding (don’t ask), was one
\nof the biggest mistakes I made in the ’90s.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, I have been given a chance to redeem myself with
\nSean Macdonald’s brainchild The ids and their debut effort
\nPsycho Babylon<\/i>… or have I? (Guess you’ll have to keep
\nreading to find out…)<\/p>\n
The sparse arrangements of many of the songs on this one paint
\nthe picture of a world trapped in a world of ironic anarchy. More
\nthan once the cries of “fuck the system” will blare from your
\nspeakers — and while this ain’t Phil Ochs, the message comes
\nacross strikingly blurry. Somehow, I think this is exactly how
\nMacdonald wanted it to be — and it works.<\/p>\n
More often than not, Macdonald is the force behind the
\ninstruments and voices of the songs, though he does occasionally
\nassemble other musicians to join him in his map-less journey.
\nNormally, in my pre-Beck days, I would doubt that order could come
\nfrom such chaos. But now that I am enlightened, I see that the
\nchaos
\nis<\/i> the order, and musicians like Adrian Rout, Jim Routhier
\nRick Brummer and Jacob Cino just help guide the listener to the
\norder.<\/p>\n
Enough already with the psycho-babble, the music is the thing –
\nand you get all styles here. From the electronic Erasure-wannabe
\nnoodlings of “Atomic City” to the close-to-being-a-rocker “Pimps In
\nIt” to the acoustic guitar and vocals on “Prozac Morning,”
\nMacdonald leads the listener through some definitely uncharted
\nwaters. Fortunately, many of them are relatively smooth.<\/p>\n
In fact, the only rough seas come on the track “Summer Of 1999,”
\nthe only true example of complete weirdness on
\nPsycho Babylon<\/i>. Had it been shorter, it might have been
\nsomewhat bearable – but not five minutes’ worth.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Macdonald does indeed make the bulk of
\nPsycho Babylon<\/i> an interesting journey to take. The blend of
\nacoustic and electric guitars, as well as the tuba-like bass lines,
\non “Monkeys In Cages” highlight Macdonald’s lyrics. “Spiritual
\nDebris” has a rawness in production and performance that is
\namazingly potent – and leads in quite well to “Rainbow Enemy” and
\nits subdued declaration of war against the status quo of
\nsociety.<\/p>\n
Somehow, I don’t see The ids going the route that Beck has
\ntaken, becoming stylish and hip with tracks like “The New
\nPollution,” but Macdonald seems to have discovered a groove that
\nfits his style of writing and performing like a wet suit. Be
\nwarned, though, that
\nPsycho Babylon<\/i> isn’t a disc you’ll immediately find
\nendearing. It’s only after repeated listenings that its power and
\nmessages will become clearer.<\/p>\n
I made the mistake a few years ago of declaring Beck as a
\npassing flavor of the month. Will The ids achieve the level of
\nsuccess that Beck has? I don’t think so. But if their future
\nefforts are anything like
\nPsycho Babylon<\/i>, it won’t be for lack of trying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5873],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-35796","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-ids","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35796"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35796"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}