The Crybaby

This was a hard album to review. I had to think about it for a while, was I going to review it solely on content or how close to Melvins style it is? When I say this, I mean none of the songs are really by the Melvins. The whole thing is almost a compilation album of sorts. I'm not sure of the track by track personnel and who did what, but I know this whole album has a ton of guests and some songs don't even seem to be done by the band themselves. Take the track "Ramblin' Man" for example, it's a solid track. A cover of an original Hank Williams song, performed here by his grandson, Hank Williams III. As mentioned, it's a solid track. No flaws, nothing wrong with it. Nice steel sounding guitar, and the man can do some great country vocals. Matter of fact, I'd say this is one of the few country tracks I've ever really enjoyed. Problem is I'm not sure I see what exactly the Melvins actually did on this track, if anything. I certainly can't hear Buzz's trademark vocals, and there aren't any drums so that rules Dale Crover out, right? So I'm wondering, did they actually do anything for it, or is this really just a compilation album?

I'll admit, there are some really weak tracks on here. I think the biggest example of this is their cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by, you guess it, Nirvana. The problem with this cover is it's disappointing, I expected the Melvins to do a lot more with a song like this. Maybe that's why they didn't, maybe it's their insane sense of humor kicking it, but either way it's really a lackluster intro to the album. Instrumentation wise, it's pretty much the same as the original. There aren't really any huge changes, aside from the vocals. This is where shit gets weird, Leif Garrett on vocals? Y'know, that child star turned drug addict? Surprisingly, he gets the job done. It's not a bad track, it's an unoriginal track sounding too close to the original. I'd probably consider this the weakest track on the album though.

The whole album is really, really varied. From the insane noise in "Moon Pie" to the crazy Mike Patton sound of "G.I. Joe." It does a really good job of showcasing a lot of the Melvins' influences as well as some publicity and collaborations with their friends. One excellent example of this is "Divorced," a track with King Buzzo and Dale Crover wrote, but in this case Tool is performing everything on it as far as I know. Tracks like these are really, really strong. These sort of collaborations between other musicians (including David Yow of The Jesus Lizard, some guys from Skeleton Key and J.G. Thirwell from Foetus) are the strongest things on here. It's a pretty ranged sound going on in this album though, if you buy it looking for a Houdini clone, tough luck. It's got a lot of noisy tracks in here a la The Jesus Lizard, two straight up country tracks, a few tracks that sound very Melvins-y but aren't really done by the Melvins, a Nirvana cover and a Mike Patton song. It's pretty mixed and the quality of the whole thing is really good, I enjoyed every track despite the major differences. The only reason this didn't get a higher score is because I don't feel it's really a Melvins release. It's good, yeah, so I didn't drop it too low, it's just not what I expected for a Melvins release. Really, in essence, this is pretty close to being a compilation album, it's just a damn fine one at that. Recommended to the open minded.