Why? - Sod In The Seed

I’m old enough to know the rules...and so it goes that I generally dismiss each new Why? release proclaiming it not as good as the last and that he’s ‘lost it’ before listening to it a couple more times and realising I was wrong. It’s been quite some time since his last album, the mellow and downbeat ‘Eskimo Snow’ so it’s difficult to know whats going on and whether he’ll come back with the corker that will make him into the ‘new Beck’ as I unsuccessfully predicted back in ‘02 or will revert a la DoseOne back into the more impenetrable chaos of his earlier work.

The lead track is an oddball cut. The majority is a white boy rap halfway between the guy from Cake and John Linnell from They Might Be Giants using Stephen Hawking’s voice box. The lyrics and delivery suggest far too much time studying Silver Jews’ magnificent ‘Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea’ opus. It has a singalong chorus which is the best bit but I’m finding the whole stream of consciousness delivery both going over my head and irritating me at the same time. The production is a little rinky-dink and it then lurches into the second track which before someone here pointed out that there is no join sounds like it could be an extension of the first track. It staggers from ‘Eskimo Snow’ type tempo changes and a bizarre calico rhythm section but is melodically more interesting than the first tune although I fear by the end of it all you’ll either be declaring him a genius or wanting to wring his neck. I don’t know if it’s the pressing but his voice is particularly nasal here.

Onto the flip and the quality picks up and finally a respite to the nerd-geek-on-speed approach with a gorgeous tune called ‘The Plan’ which shows off everything good about Mr Wolf. It’s a country-ish lollop with tremendously affecting vocals with wonderful echo effect on the voice. It’s painfully brief but as per the first side it melts into the next track ‘Probable Cause’ which shifts tempo and chords seemingly at some kind of random interval.

In fact by the time closer ‘Shag Carpet’ rolls around it all becomes too much, I seem to have lost a track somewhere, it’s so intense and constantly shifting and I just want a break from it all and to get my ears cleaned. What appears to be happening is that Why? is trying to condense the whole of his career into a 20-odd-minute relentless rock opera. Sometimes it’s so They Might Be Giants it hurts, lyrical clunkers abound (one more reference to ex-girlfriend and I’ll kill) but there are still plenty of flashes of musical genius amongst the scattershot chaos to make me excited about his upcoming full lengther.