3 out of 5

Label: Fresh Sound New Talent

Producer: Steve Weiss (engineer)

Are the Bad Plus jazz?  Sure.  Do the Bad Plus rock?  Sure.  Are they a fusion of rock and jazz?  …Maybe?  While the group is certainly less traditional than, I suppose, jazz purists might allow, the spirit of improvisation and syncopation that seems common to the genre is alive and well on all their outings, definitely grounding them in the deetle-deet tootle-toot world of Bird and Parker and whoever else I’m not jazzy enough to know.  The inclusion / twisting of some standards on each album shows each player’s familiarity and love for that world, if their history as individual session player / members in/of various jazz collectives doesn’t provide the proof.  That being said, over the years the group has started to include more and more rock/post-rock cues into their structure, making it tougher to say who, exactly, would be an easy fan-base, as it’s a little too aggressive for those tootle-toots, maybe not wankery enough for Godspeed! fans, and maybe not heavy enough for Slint fans.  But I like them, so I’m sure you do too.  (YES)

Here on their first album, though, we have a group figuring out what they want to do.  There’s the attention grabbing Smells Like Teen Spirit cover, an Abba cover, a Blue Moon cover, and then some originals.  It’s all much more jazzy at this point than what would come, which – sure, you’re covering some unique selections – which makes it very accessible and easy to hype to get them that Columbia Records deal.  The originals have some interesting concepts and beats (‘1972 Bronze Medalist’ shows the more rock-paced direction the band would start to aim toward, and closer ‘Love Is the Answer’ fiddles with post-rock build and explode), but the grounding is still in the quiet plonk and pliddle of jazz, giving the overall debut more of a novelty feel.  It lacks heart.  By the time ‘Give’ would drop, the group started to find it, manned-up by the success of ‘Vistas,’ but here a Nirvana cover reads like fogeys havin’ fun playin’ the kids tunes (no thanks to the liner notes from drummer David King (if I recall) who fesses up to having no clue about the song prior to the recording).  And it is fun, and it is friendly, and you have no doubt of the skill of those involved (…though the attempted messing about with the ‘Teen Spirit’ bridge pretty much fails…).  Which is all fine and good.  But the album wouldn’t have a place on my shelf if the group hadn’t proven itself as a group – a developing identity – with the slew of releases to follow.

A better album to return to once you’re hooked on BP vs. starting here.