I realize that sometimes it’s hard for readers to get excited
\nabout a record I may choose to review here that is over 20 years
\nold. I can hear the comments now: “What, is this guy living in the
\npast? Get with the times, Mister Critic!”<\/p>\n
I come to this realization after receiving in the mail
\nLotus<\/i> from the Swedish power metal\/stoner rock trio Mrs.
\nHippie. Apparently their label wants me to get excited about a
\ncompilation disc from a band who has been broken up (for the most
\npart) since 1996. But before I could say anything more, the disc
\nstarted to play – and while this band isn’t anything worth lighting
\nup the sky about, they did have the potential to be something more
\nthan just common.<\/p>\n
The trio – vocalist Joacim Cans, guitarist Christian
\nSmedstr\u00f6m and drummer Mike Vai – have some leanings toward the
\nstoner rock genre, though they hardly begin to dip into the musical
\nexcesses that some bands tend to fall into. They’re more than just
\nthat, just as they’re more than just a typical power metal band.
\nThe chords have some crunch to them, but they don’t try to cause
\nthe fretboards to smoke or the drums to start coming apart at the
\nseams. This is a mixture, pure and simple – and it works.<\/p>\n
Granted, it takes a little time for everything to really come
\ntogether. Tracks like “Someone Else There” and “Lies” aren’t the
\nstrongest material that the band has to offer. But as the band
\nkicks into songs like “Going Home” and “Mother Nature Bleeds,” the
\ninteraction between the musicians begins to really pay off.<\/p>\n
There are the occasional moments of excess – most of which come
\nin the 11-minute opus “Lost My Way”. And count their cover of
\nKiss’s “I Want You” as a guilty pleasure for both listener and band
\nalike. It’s decent enough, but it doesn’t really capture the sonic
\ngrit that the original had.<\/p>\n
Besides having more than adequate musical skills, Cans’s vocals
\nare crystal clear, and the listener could easily be fooled into
\nthinking they were listening to an American group. But most of all,
\nwhat is striking about Mrs. Hippie (besides the scantily-clad model
\non the back of the case) is that they were really just starting to
\nwarm up when they decided to part ways.
\nLotus<\/i> is a sign that this band was beginning to realize
\ntheir potential. Why they chose not to continue I don’t know, and
\nit truly is the scene’s loss.<\/p>\n
\nLotus<\/i> is a disc that suggests that Mrs. Hippie was a band
\ncapable of much greatness, even in their weaker moments.
\nRegrettably, we’re left to guess at what else they would have come
\nup with. Can I get excited about a disc from a band who haven’t
\nbeen together for four years? For the most part, yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6370],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36690","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mrs-hippie","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36690","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=36690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36690"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36690"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}