I've been thinking about it for a while now, probably around a year, maybe longer. Just trying to figure out how they've evolved over the years and it's not about distortion or heaviness. It seems that in the past, a lot of the Melvin's essential DNA, what makes them Melvins is is that they presented themselves with the sideshow bob appearance, the muumuu, the gardening gloves, the ridiculous lyrics, the sense of humour. BUT. At the same time their music was totally opposite, it was nasty, heavy, punishing, savage, sharp or sludgy or disturbing. They worked in unison, two almost ironic juxtapositions if you will. This lasted for ages.
From Dadaism nonsensical lyrics of Ozma mixed with brutal delivery. The quite clean precises delivery of the bootlicker opposed by a sinister tone and sharp delivery of all those songs. loose laid back feel on Honky while strongly opposed by a disturbing ambience throughout. The more you look at it the more it appears, the stark contrast they've always maintained.
However I could never place my finger on why but only recently I think it's because the newer albums don't have this.
It seems these days the ridiculousness of the Melvin s themselves has actually translated across into the music and to me, it just doesn't work as well. they play a straight game these days.
nstead of the odd contradiction of the seriousness of their music mixed in with their sense of humour...these days it's crept across so much so that the contradiction is lost and all that is sometimes left is just that. 99 Bottles, or some of the covers.
It's not about heavy guitars or Melvins not making Lysol anymore. It's more the fact that that I think they've lost that essential ingredient which made Melvins the Melvins. It's not a diss, it's not a criticism but it's definitely the feeling I get when I hear their modern records to those of 15+ years ago.
There are some nasty/solid bits in this PAT album and the contractitions are stil there, but there are times where it just goes straight up and misses out on thisjuxtaposition d the'yve had for so many years. dont abnd me again i'm actually half drunk lol and typed this out in one go
