Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsZoothead Songs for Gray Areas Deep Reverb So what do you expect when you listen to a CD with called "Songs for Gray Areas" that has a black and white photo of a smoggy quasi-industrial landscape? Fuzzy guitar? check. Emotional guy vocals? Check. Long songs? Check. A song in with the word "eye" in the title? Check. Alrighty, so you get the general idea of Zoothead. Don't dismiss them as just another emo band, though. There are no songs about playgrounds and there is only one song with the word "eye" in the title. I mean, I suppose that they could fit under the emo tag, but mostly in that they're a lot like Hum. We all like Hum, don't we? I know that being called "emo" has quickly morphed into a kiss of death but give Zoothead a chance, won't you? The most Hum-like songs are "Stuttering", "All Grown Over" and "Wide-eyed", all of which are actually memorable, unlike a lot of the fuzz filled stuff that's out there these days. They recall the afforementioned Champaigne-Urbana kids who are sitting unloved on a major label at the moment more in the guitar and bass parts than the vocals, but that still counts, right? I mean, there are lots of bands that plug in their distortion pedals and complain about their girlfriends, but not too many along those lines who make songs that are actually catchy and interesting, like Zoothead has done. There's actually energy in these songs! It's not boring! It's actually pretty interesting! Woo! Some kids hate emo, but some kids don't. Maybe Zoothead could be shoved under that header, maybe not. I don't care since they're good. If you really have something against bands like this, then you probably shouldn't listen to this. And if you don't like to have shooting pains in your hands, you should not hammer nails into them. Really, no one who hates this type of music has read this far, right? So, since you're here, go pick this album up, ok? Total score: 742 out of 753 |