Meatbodies
Alice
Release Date: Feb 10, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Garage Punk, Indie Rock
Record label: In the Red Records
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Album Review: Alice by Meatbodies
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Meatbodies' self-titled debut album showed off the raging guitar skills of Chad Ubovich, a guy who cut his rock & roll teeth as a member of Ty Segall's band, Mikal Cronin's band, and his project with Segall, Fuzz. Stepping out on his own with Meatbodies, the sound was in place -- thick slabs of fuzzy guitars, tight bass and drum attacks, and whiny, garage punk vocals -- but the songs weren't quite able to hold up their end of the bargain. Now, on Meatbodies' second album, Alice, the sound is even more impressively mighty and the songs are too.
Based on rating 7/10
The world is a dark place, and lately, it seems to be getting darker. On Alice, the ever-encroaching darkness can be heard, seething and crawling, covering the album with fuzz and haze, with only small glimpses of light. Meatbodies conjure up images of ghosts and monsters, dark magic and gory mischief. Opening track "The Burning Fields" starts quiet and peaceful, with wind blowing and birds singing, only to have dank, distorted guitar riffs cover everything, like that oil monster from FernGully.
Based on rating 6.3/10
As California garage rock was recently enjoying a hot streak of sorts, Meatbodies emerged with a 2014 debut that asserted them as wreckers to be reckoned with. Songs like "Disorder," with its fast, beefy, infectious hook, could hang with Ty Segall's most rabid material. (It helps, of course, that Segall himself played bass and drums on that track.) It was an album with layers--one where earworm hooks and massive guitar solos wove together with gradual, acoustic psychedelia.
Opinion: Excellent
Vince Staples, "BagBak" (Def Jam). The smart, agile Long Beach rapper seems to float across the futuristic synth bars on his new track. Staples, who is only 23, has been on a thrilling run since his "Stolen Youth" mixtape in 2013. His confidence seems to be growing alongside his skills as a writer, as proved by his breakout 2015 album, "Summertime '06," and his accurately titled 2016 EP "Prima Donna." With fluid phrasing and verbal playfulness that's dotted with cussing for emphasis, Staples dedicates his new single, "BagBak," to his "future baby mama" and brags that not only will he replace her Honda with a Mercedes but he will also alter her very core.
'Alice'
is available now