Search - Umphrey's Mcgee :: Mantis

Mantis is a monster!

Ryan Wojno | 01/20/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With their latest release, Umphrey's McGee presents "Mantis," an album of new beginnings while still remaining true to their roots. For those unfamiliar with UM, they're best described as the results of tossing several musical genres into a blender and filtering the results through stereo speakers. They can get down and funky, rock out, play the blues and even get a little jazzy when the song calls for it. While most popular on the jam band circuit, the band has been developing a solid following amongst the progressive rock faithful which will only grow with this release.

Despite their jam band leanings, the band remains focused on the album presenting a precise and effective album. At the same time, the opportunity for expansive improvisation is *very* present and the band will no doubt take advantage of this as they hit the road to promote the album.

While gearing up for this review, I listened to the bands debut studio album "Local Band Does O.K." and it is simply amazing to see how far they have come. While a great album on its own, the maturity of the band really jumps out on "Mantis." Inside, the listener is treated to a mix of Beatles, early Genesis and even Radiohead-esque influences but most importantly, a whole lot of Umphrey's McGee. As to be expected, all musicians are in top form which is really exciting considering the superb material the band has arranged to hit the road with. This album will deliver many a legendary UM live experience!

In closing, tight compositions coupled with great, tasty playing will always be a recipe for success in my book and its almost scary to think the only place for the Umphreys Boys to go is UP."

Pretty good, but not as great as it should be

Steven E. Wonchoba | Minneapolis, MN USA | 01/29/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It pains me to finally admit this, as I usually have nothing but positive things to say about Umphrey's McGee, but I have to agree with reviewer Mr Stanley, who flatly pointed out that MANTIS is just not as great as many of the reviews on this site are indicating. It's certainly not up to the level of ANCHOR DROPS, SAFETY IN NUMBERS, or the incomparable LOCAL BAND DOES OK.



First of all, let's deal with the much ballyhooed title track. Yes, it's good, but we need to face the fact that just because a song is listed at 11+ minutes, that doesn't automatically make it a spectacular cohesive epic. Without question, "Mantis" (the song) starts out wonderfully with a very aggressive instrumental section that feels like a close cousin to "Wizard Burial Ground". And even when the vocals start ("We believe there's something here worth dying for..."), you can't help but feel like you're in for something really special.



But the song never really delivers like it should. The 11 minutes end up feeling like several 3-minute songs just spliced together. And I honestly don't think that if it were listed as 4 separate songs on the CD that everyone would be going on about how great "tracks 3 through 6" are. Now, in addition to the terrific intro, the final 3 or so minutes of "Mantis" are also very strong, but parts of the song (I'm thinking particularly about the bit from about 3:30 to 4:50) are downright awful. Brendan Bayliss, whose voice is a rare gem among jam-band lead vocalists, gets a little too fancy with the vocal harmonization here, and much of his delivery simply sounds out of key. There's also a slow section from about 6:00 to 8:00 that if it were a standalone song, would never be considered anything better than average. As a whole, the song is decent; and as mentioned, parts of it are truly spectacular. But it's just not an 11 minute masterwork, or UM's "definitive song" or anything like that.



Once you accept that "Mantis" is not the greatest song ever written, but rather "a good song with some inspired moments" the remainder of the album definitely has some good points. The "Cemetery Walk" suite, which combined clocks in at almost 10 minutes, is instead a much more cohesive extended piece than the title track. This song weaves in and out of three very distinct themes, bouncing between them gracefully throughout, while remaining true to the core of the song. One of the themes is fairly similar to "Prowler" from LBDOK; another theme is a terrific 7/4 bit that jumps between single & double time rhythms very adeptly; and the third theme is a moderate tempo piece that is uncannily reminiscent of some early Genesis instrumentals (the last reprisal of it would have fit on THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY without a second thought). The final 2+ minutes (tracked as the standalone "Cemetery Walk II") is an electronica laden reprise of the 7/4 theme in the same style as "Robot World" and "Atmosfarag" (C'mon -- you need a little bit of that on every Umph's album).



"Red Tape" is a very fun song with some cool time signature explorations that, while having a bit of a dated feel (with those keyboards, it would not have been out of place in the mid 80's), makes great understated use of horns. Remember how loud the horns were on "Intentions Clear"? This is nothing like that. "Red Tape" makes much better subtle use of them. And "Made To Measure", although a bit of a strange choice for album opener, is a terrific, almost Beatles-esque song that really helps UM stretch their genre.



But unfortunately, none of these tracks really stand out among the true classics in the UM catalog. And yes, of course many UM songs take on new life when they are played live and ultimately morph into something spectacular, but it's even better when you have a terrific slab of clay to work with. And nothing here really is that terrific. Furthermore, other tracks are terribly lackluster. For instance, while the final 2 minutes of "Turn & Run" features an absolutely outstanding Cinninger guitar solo (speaking of songs that will take on a new life in the live show... ), the first 5 minutes are killed by a very lethargic vocal performance, lazy harmonization, and very run of the mill music. And "Spires" unfortunately suffers from the same problem as "Wife Soup" from ANCHOR DROPS -- a nearly 8 minute song that really should have been only 3 minutes.



So bottom line, I've never had to try this hard to like an Umphrey's McGee album. And there isn't enough memorable, or even potentially memorable music on it for me to rank MANTIS among the better UM efforts. I just expected much much more from an album that we have been constantly reminded was "two years in the making". 3 1/2 stars, round it down to 3."

"local band does PHENOMENAL"

dtm | ct USA | 01/22/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a avid jam band listener these guys have been on my radar for awhile. Their first album "local band does O.K." is fantastic, plenty of jazz inspired jams and serious musical prowess got me hooked. They also had that fun party jam sound of bands like phish. If you havent ever heard these guys order "local band" along with your copy of Mantis.

In a live setting these guys rip. Skilled changes in time signature, blazing guitar solos and captivating "turnabouts" will have you writhing

in musical pleasure. However you wont find many extended jams on this record. Thats not what the boys set out to do with this album. What you have here is a well-crafted, polished progressive rock album that trancends the "jam-band" genre. And personally i think it couldnt have turned out any better. Fantastic production, soothing well harmonized vocals and solid solos sprinkled throughout. If you're familiar with these guys you will enjoy this new record, if your not.....i think you will too. Five stars for my favorite album this year so far."