Eeeks, I really don’t like that album title, it reminds me of A-Level chemistry, a subject I had to cheat at to pass (I stole a piece of coursework done by a clever kid that the school had archived off from the previous year, and then used their conclusions in my own coursework [that investigated a similar issue] to make myself look a genius, I proceeded to get a C on that, and about a Z on the exam, but the coursework grade helped me get a pass, yay!).
I keep hearing stuff that says Bluetip have put out three records and they all sound exactly the same. What a crock of shite. This one sounds much worse. I don’t know why, but following two pretty solid albums of their DC slanted rock music, they have now put out one that is the absolute pits. Musically they are still headed in that same direction of vaguely arty songs with vaguely unpredictable stop/starts and the admittedly great vox of Mr. Farrell. Opening song, title track ‘Polymer’ is pretty decent, but things are rapidly heading downhill with ‘New Young Residents’, which just has nothing to offer. Oh so flat and lacking in drive, excitement, thrills, tune, anything. And that’s about the blueprint for the rest of this record. There is simply nothing on here that really makes me want to listen to it more than a couple of times, everything is so lacklustre! And this is a surprise to me, as I really enjoyed them live, and thought the Hot-Fast+Union EP was rather fine. ‘New Shoe Premonition’ has a nice fast chorus-ey bit, but still maintains that slightly lifeless feeling the rest of this record has. Did J Robbins fuck up the production? Quite possibly, these guys need a really rough and raw sound I think, rather than the precise one he’s given them. A rock ‘n’ rollin’ Bluetip would probably be quite a sonic treat, but hey, all I do is write reviews, not make music.
High points? Well, ‘Stereo Tinnitus’ has a nice intro with strange distorted vocals, and meandering, slumbering music, but it quickly morphs into regular Bluetip again. There’s another quite good track near the end, almost the last song in fact, which sounds completely different, but my power of description has shut down by this stage and gone into hibernation due to the total dullness of the rest of the LP. So, other than that, well, not much to recommend really. It’s not like this is really, really bad, it’s just totally and utterly bland. Doink.
Well, if you’re a fan of Bluetip, you’ll probably like it, but I didn’t. Right.