Sometimes, it doesn’t pay for me to read the liner notes to an
\nalbum. Take
\nOh Well<\/i>, the independent debut from Austin, Texas-based The
\nMentals. Lead guitarist\/vocalist Steve Tobin was working on these
\nsongs in 1998, and had even booked out professional studio time,
\nwhen he was involved in a car accident that nearly killed him. It
\nwould be nearly one year before Tobin could play guitar again, so
\nhe has offered up this collection of “live in the studio”
\nefforts.<\/p>\n
After reading that, how could I dare to say something negative
\nabout Tobin and The Mentals? Well, call me the devil or whatever
\nyou wish, but
\nOh Well<\/i> is a portrait of a group in development, showing
\nsome strong points but often revealing their flaws.<\/p>\n
Now, I’m not going to knock the production quality of this disc,
\nfor the simple reason that Tobin admits in the liner notes that he
\nwas going for a very raw sound. This he has indeed captured – and I
\ntend to think this is the right sound for a band like The
\nMentals.<\/p>\n
On first listen to
\nOh Well<\/i>, you might sit back and wonder if you didn’t pop in
\nNirvana’s debut
\nBleach<\/i> by mistake. The two bands have more in common than
\nyou think: power trios, punk-influenced alternative music not
\nafraid to plow their own paths, and singers who aren’t exactly
\ntop-notch but get the job done.<\/p>\n
If there were one major weakness to The Mentals, I’m sorry to
\nsay it, but it would be Tobin’s vocals. There are times on
\nOh Well<\/i> where his vocals don’t even come close to being in
\nthe key of the song he’s playing. If The Mentals were to bring in a
\nsinger and allow Tobin to focus on his guitar playing, the stakes
\nwould rise significantly for them.<\/p>\n
It’s not that
\nOh Well<\/i> is without merit; if you follow the Nirvana thread,
\nI actually liked this disc more than I liked
\nBleach<\/i>. Tracks like “Virgin Mary,” “Valium,” “Home” and
\n“Bell Jar” all show that The Mentals were a band with promise in
\n1998. And while the down time was obviously not the best thing to
\nhappen to Tobin, in the end it could prove to have benefits that
\nwill be seen down the road.<\/p>\n
I can’t say that
\nOh Well<\/i> is the kind of disc I’d want to leave in the CD
\nchanger to join my permanent playlist, but the album does suggest
\nbetter things to come from this group. Here’s hoping that Tobin has
\ncompletely recovered from his injuries, and that The Mentals’s new
\nmusic proves me right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6497],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-36911","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-mentals","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36911","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=36911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36911"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36911"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}