2 out of 5

Label: Seismic Wave

Producer: John Congleton (engineer)

Well, I think these dudes missed the rock revival movement by a few years.  Mount Vicious are billed as a punk / rock mashup, but the heart of it is 70s New York rock dashed with some glam.  Some good riffs and surprisingly balanced engineering from Congleton (I love his production for certain style groups but he’s been troubled by straight rock in the past) are lost in a mix of mostly tepid lyrics and overly repetitive song structures.  The album starts strong, putting all of its more original jams up front.  It’s low end heavy and the song structure won’t surprise anyone – riff to chorus to riff to bridge to riff – but Vicious pulls off a pretty convincing rock sneer in line with Dirty Pretty Things.  Taking this comparison though, makes what’s lacking more apparent: energy.  This style of crotch-grab heavy rock should ooze a sweaty pulse, but for the most part it feels like the group is putting on airs.  Since the majority of tracks only have one or two lines of lyrics plus an oft-repeated chorus and also tend to not build on the core riff… with half of the bridges not linking well at all… it doesn’t improve this profile much.  Lacking energy, but what’s played is pulled off well and the songs all do have a unique and catchy main beat, though the band can only really swing it into fully awesome songs a couple times out – opener ‘Da Proposition’ and the awesome ‘Steroid Unicorn’.  But things drop off pretty quick after that.  Midway through ‘What’s My Emotivation?’ you’ll stifle a yawn, and then in ‘Make Room For Daddy’ you’ll start to wonder how many times a chorus can be repeated.

Regarding the production – Congleton’s best at home with disparately layered groups like his own and 90 Day Men.  His rock albums have always felt imbalanced, though, like he can’t figure out where to put the flair when three loud instruments are going at once and in sync.  (His plodding production on The Thermals album he did comes to mind.)  This is the first rock I’ve heard from him that gets a good mix, and I’m sure the band deserves some credit for that as well.  The guitar doesn’t get too much range in favor of pumping up the bass and low drum beats, but it works to keep things sounding good if you’re using headphones.