REVIEW: The Melvins, The Crybaby (Ipecac)
- Matthew Carlin
There is something distinctly off-putting about the Melvins. The slow tempos, the unintelligible lyrics, the not-giving-a-shit-what-even-their-fans-think aesthetic. It's like Buzz & co. purposely make it hard to like them. Yet there is a solid underground of freaks and weirdoes who love the Melvins.
Regardless, The Crybaby is perhaps the most brilliant concept album (the last installment in a trio of concept albums no less) ever. With guest vocalists and musicians from a completely haphazard and unlikely array of sources, the Melvins prove themselves to be the most clever, even if still the most annoying, band in rock.
The shear audacity of recording "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with 70s has-been Leif Garrett on lead vocals is funny enough in theory. His earnest, straight rock, multi-tracked treatment of it casts the '90s punk anthem in an entirely new light. Of course, it's too bizarre to even try to dissect or analyze.
The logical combination of the Melvins and Jesus Lizard yelper David Yow on a couple of tracks and the dirgy 11-minute "The Man With the Laughing Hand is Dead," with female singer Bliss Blood, will probably sate regular Melvins fans. Then again, the country ditties with Hank Williams III on vocals and Helmet's Henry Bogdan on pedal steel make just as much sense in some perverse way.
More interesting is "Divorced," a surprisingly cohesive, though sprawling and atmospheric, pairing with Tool. "Spineless" is by far the Melvins' catchiest ditty, with N.Y. electro-popsters Skeleton Key -- another surprising combination. A brooding mood piece with J.G. (Foetus) Thurwell and a semi-disappointing track with Ipecac co-honcho and former Faith No More man Mike Patton round out the collection. The audio equivalent of a slightly nauseating, but entirely intriguing spectacle, the novelty of this album will certainly entertain even folks who can't normally stomach the Melvins.
