Remember when Seattle was the booming music scene in which coffee, heroin, and flannel reigned supreme, rock music was considered grunge, and Eddie Vedder was a god? If Gatsby's American Dream's latest EP In The Land Of Lost Monsters is a barometer of what is coming out of Seattle these days, then I have to say that I am indifferent to what is going on. It's not that I think what they are doing on the latest EP is something bad; it just is something, not good or bad, which in this case can be mundane.
In The Land Of Lost Monsters starts out interesting enough with "Yes, This Is About You" clocking in at just over a minute it is a quick diatribe on GAD's view of the music industry with lines like, "We make music, but we are not machines." "A Conversation With The Devil" a generic mid-tempo rock song, is short enough to endure, and would not be so bad if it didn't have such a sluggish feel to it. GAD changes things up a bit with "I Smell An Agenda" starting the track out with just strings and a drum fill, before a piano kicks in backing up the vocals. Things get muddled up in the next two tracks "You Stole My Story" and "Red, Red, Blue" with two more mid-tempo rock songs that sound very tired and make the EP drag. They manage to get back on their feet with the acoustic driven "The Badlands" which also features the use of a keyboard in the background while Nic Newsham sings, "Whispered stories, tales of glory and a tragic fall from grace and we're still falling just like the dinosaurs." The album closer, "The Dragon Of Pendor", is the heaviest song on the EP and gives In The Land Of Lost Monsters a very strong finish.
This is a record that can't be listened to just once, because you will write it off as another generic rock band attempting to do something different. The more listens you give it the more you will appreciate what Gatsby's American Dream is doing. This is an album that is hit and miss, but there are signs here that Gatsby's American Dream are heading in the right direction, let's just hope that they don't collaborate with Chris Cornell.
2.5/4
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