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Rating: Yet another project by Maynard James Keenan (I'm not going to tell you who he is and what he's done because it's more depressing for me to write than for you to read) but as long as he creates music at high levels like he has for the last fifteen years, he's allowed to be even more ubiquitous than Alba Parietti.
An album that suffers from performance anxiety since the standards to which one inevitably refers are really too high, and at this point, I think of a poem we study in school where the wait is what is truly savored because the excessive illusion of a five-star album has given way to disappointment. In fact, there had already been talk of this project with the past release of some tracks and the launch of the official website that for over a year has left us longing for this work. Moreover, one can understand more about Maynard's thinking through his posts and buy Puscifer-branded clothing online. Some argue that the Puscifer project is fundamentally a joke by Maynard himself, using the choice of irony and eccentric intellectualism as an intentional act on his part to justify the pale quality of the tracks, but in my opinion, it is still an album with many shortcomings, and the artist's intentions, when the songs do not fully satisfy concretely, are just passing whispers.
Many guests, but their presences are almost useless: Tim Alexander, Gil Sharone, Rani Sharone, Brian Lustmord, Mat Mitchell, Jonny Polonsky, Ainjel Emme, Jarboe, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis.
The single "Queen B" is a sum of choruses, and the result is a lounge track that is redundant like "Dozo," which does not fully satisfy despite Maynard having one of the most beautiful voices ever, but often this alone is not enough, especially in an electronic music work.
The unsuccessful result of the album is also due to the tracks "Rev 22:20" (Michael Bublé would have sung it better, and I've said enough) and "The Undertaker" previously released in close collaboration with Danny Lohner in the two soundtracks of Underworld, which sounded more industrial and had decidedly misled me. Here they are less convincing than the originals; "Vagina Mine," clearly inspired by trip-hop, "Trekka" definable as an assembly line of sound, and "Momma Sed" are the best pieces where some flashes of genius are perceived but not exploited to the fullest, leaving that sense of incompleteness and expectation in the ears of those who listen. "Indigo Children" and "Sour Grapes" push my patience to the limit perhaps because I expect the songs to evolve from the flatness of the ready-to-pass electronic shocks to a higher level, but the wait is not satisfied.
Who writes this review is a great admirer of the artist, but this time Maynard did not try hard enough and gave us something that resembles background music, and even if there had been no natural comparison with previous musical experiences, this "Vagina" would still have remained disposable.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
09 Sour Grapes (06:44)
And the angel of the lord led me
Into the belly of the holy mother
A chamber black as pitch
But I felt no fear, only comfort,
For I was as a child in the womb
And she begged me
"Hear through yonder portal
Which looked upon the heavens,
And behold! a morning angel"
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
She ascended slowly from far beyond the horizon,
Her light like a heavenly finger pointing the way
And on yonder wall she traced for me a path
Which led me five directions, eight winters to east,
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
And behold!
As my feet landed firmly
Upon the vital winter of the second storm
There appeared before me a heavenly star
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
A holy virgin, the bringer of life and breath
And she spoke unto me saying
"Fear not the movement of the heavens above or the earth below
For change is what we are, my child.
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
Righteous are those
Who look up and sway with the wind,
Who look down and dance with the shifting of the soil,
Who swim with the movement of the tides
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
Who seek the truth around them
And discover that we are
And have always been in paradise.
The reflections of heaven on earth. Amen!'
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
And she spoke again saying
"Know, my child,
That there is no devil seeking
To cause guilt nor harm to men.
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
No evil, save blind faith, ignorance,
And the desire for the unprepared
To blame others for the devastation
Left in the wake of change
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
Change, my child
Change is in the heavens
Change is on this earth
Change is all around us
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
And if we
Are reflections of the divine
We must roll with these changes,
For we are these changes.
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
Eyes wide open,
We must look upon
The heavens as a mirror.
Wide awake, aware, deeply breathing
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
And when the shit comes down, my child,
You will be there,
A true and holy survivor
To inherit the kingdom of god.
[Hal-le-lu-jah!]
You will rise above the rumbles of the unprepared
To greet the new day,
To drink from the sweet fruit of the vine,
The water of life, the blood of the risen Christ, my child.'
[Je-ho-vah! Yah-weh!]
'Go now, son,
Tell them all.
The ignorant, the blind paw by dogma,
Blinded by faith, the doubters, the nay sayers.
[Je-ho-vah! Yah-weh!]
Tell them all, child,
They can not see
The kingdom of God,
They can not see paradise
Unfold before them
[Je-ho-vah! Yah-weh!]
They can not drink
From the chalice
Which holds the blood of Christ,
The water of life,
Until they get right with Jesus.
[Je-ho-vah! Yah-weh!]
Until they get right with Jesus.
It's always gonna be
Sour grapes with you, boy,
Until you get right with Jesus. Amen!
[Je-ho-vah! Yah-weh!]
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