San Francisco psychedelic garage rock band Thee Oh Sees released their new album “Mutilator Defeated at Last” on Tuesday, May 19, 2015. Do not get too excited, though, as this album is nothing to get excited about.
Please do not get me wrong; this album is not bad, per se. Its upbeat drums will have you jumping around and dancing like you are at a punk rock show, without a doubt. However, as I listened to it, I found myself getting extremely bored. There are only nine songs on the album, but the end still could not come fast enough.
The problem with “Mutilator Defeated at Last” is that it has nothing special to offer. There are no songs that stuck out to me or that made me want to listen to the album more than once. On top of that, many of the songs sounded overproduced and unnecessarily noisy, as if they were trying too hard to get the psychedelic feel.
Many indie bands want desperately to sound “different” to appeal to the world’s growing population of hipsters. Instead of spending time to write original and unique music, they just add tons of effects to the songs, slap on a strange-looking album cover, and call it a day. This seems to be the case with Thee Oh Sees.
“There are so many bands nowadays that try way too hard to sound cool and hipster. It always comes out sounding like garbage when they focus more on their style than the actual music,” said sophomore Jordan Tinitigan.
If I had to choose my favorite song, it would be “Sticky Hulks”. It starts off sounding similar to the rest of the songs, but then about halfway through the guitar comes in for a quick solo and it sounds great. For a moment, I thought that I had finally found a gem on the album. Unfortunately, after the 15 second solo ended, the song reverted back to its boring sound and I was once again struggling to stay awake.
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I have listened to Thee Oh Sees in the past and I really like some of their stuff. I hate to be “that guy” who says that their old music was a lot better, but in all honesty, it is true. The songs off of their 2013 release “Floating Coffin” like “Toe Cutter- Thumb Buster” remind me why I started liking the band in the first place.
I am not about to go on some rant about how they changed or sold out or whatever, but I would just like to remind all of you not to let the mess that is “Mutilator Defeated at Last” turn you off from Thee Oh Sees altogether. They are a talented band that came out with a dud. It happens.
“I think Thee Oh Sees were lazy on this album. They have the potential to make some really great music but instead just came out with something mediocre. I hope their next release isn’t as disappointing,” said junior Alejandra Menendez.
I give this album three stars out of ten. It is not the worst album I have ever heard. I even liked it at times. However, it was just all around bland and I am probably never going to listen to it again. Better luck next time, Thee Oh Sees.
Have you listened to the new album? What are your thoughts?