Search - Foetus :: Flow

A brilliant album with something for everybody

Michael G. Hannaford | Sacramento, CA USA | 09/19/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Flow is hands down my favorite Foetus album yet, and here's why:1) It came from nowhere. Recent Foetus releases have been so uninspiring that I had practically written him off. Flow took me by complete surprise.2) The lyrics are some of his best ever, e.g. these serious winners from The Need Machine: "whoever has the most toys always wins / they'll genuflect then kick you in the shins / give me librium or give me meth / I'll filter out the nutrients / and cut the rest to mix your Mickey Finn."3) All of his masterful instrumentalism is at his peak performance. Crazy drumming. Great horn playing. The orchestral samples / performances (I'm not really sure how he gets all those sounds) are magnificent. 4) More jazz influence is always nice, and the hilarious track Heuldock #7b gives us more of that fast crazy death-swing that we want, on top of the scathing lyrical torture of some unfortunate ex (hmmmmmmm... wonder who that could be). Plus the gospel influence in "Grace of God," and the oddball bossa "Cirrhosis of the Heart."5) The companion album "Blow" with all the remixes is also excellent and makes you appreciate "Flow" even more.6) While I normally don't like the slow tracks so much (and here the long slow grind of "Mandelay" doesn't suit my palate), the excellent "Someone Who Cares" is a notable exception. Slow and sexy, it makes you want to drink yourself into the gutter with this poor old sod.Anyway: I see/hear many people repeat the adage that all of Thirlwell's best material is the "old stuff," you know, Ache and Hole and Nail and all that. Those are incredible albums, no doubt, and I love all that stuff. But if I wanted to introduce someone to Foetus for the first time, Flow is the album I would play for them. Flow rules. Buy it. Now."

A must have

I X Key | 05/30/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This simply is one of those CDs that you must have listened to. When I heard the first two tracks I was still not very enthusiastic about the music, but as the CD progressed the music got better and better.
Some might call it 'Industrial' or 'Alternative', but it really is just Thirwell, aka Foetus. Don't try to categorise it, just listen and enjoy. Listen to the typical Thirwell reincarnation of 'cool jazz' in 'Heuldoch 78', enjoy the manic 'Need machine', or be swept into the sound picture of 'Suspect', you can tell that here is a guy at work who has something meaningfull to tell, not just a bag of wind looking for a quick fix for his ego. So, do yourself a favor and buy this one, you'll never regret it."

Brilliant composing, wildly unique vision

I X Key | tomorrow | 03/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Foetus is so crazy. Shamelessly avant-garde. The first song feels to me like it sounds how he thinks people who buy his albums want to hear in Foetus, to throw them off guard. Guitars & sampled Ministry drumming. The second song is different. It's almost like a 60's or 70's jingle in a Foetusy way. Because Foetus is not the industrial rock band people might think it is. In fact, as far as I know, Jim Thirlwell calls industrial the "I" word. So then the third song is one of the most amazing songs of my life. Thickly layered, textured, heavy percussion for 8 minutes with heart-wrenching vocals, a violin solo, & more. The fourth song is toe-tappin finger-snappin fun jazz, like. The pulsing strings in the fifth song are great. So's the grit. Then there's some tormented, twisted, disaffected, apathetic blues/jazz/swing in the thickly composed strange non-blues/jazz/swing way only Foetus could pull off like this. & the last two songs are very noisy, thick with guitars, (one of the songs with a bossa nova beat!) until the last few minutes of the last one are weird spacey electronics & a lullaby. This cd is a wonderful evolution of Foetus. & I he made it as a 2-cd project with Blow. They're cd's you buy separately, but I think it's important to hear the remixes on Blow next to Flow."