Civic “Chrome Dipped” Lp (ATO Records)

Civic

“Chrome Dipped” Lp

(ATO Records)

I am a big fan of Civic! Their live show is great, and the previous studio output has been nothing less than excellent. The previous “Taken by Force” lp was one of my favorites of last year. I was pumped to hear they had a new lp coming out and was eager to hear some new tracks. Then I heard the first single and watched the video of the title track ”Chrome Dipped”. My excitement then waned. The album finally landed, and I listened to it. Nothing grabbed me and I was super disappointed. I am not too quick to judge as sometimes albums can hit you later. I listened again, then again, then again. Then I took another week and revisited it again. I wanted to like this but….it is just a snooze fest and not very cohesive. Gone is the awesome Saint’s /Birdman sound. What has replaced that is a clumsy and pretentious disaster with terrible spoken word breakdowns and bad 90’s grunge fringe. I am not so sure what happened here. I am all for moving into different directions and experimenting, but this is not what the fucking doctor ordered.

It’s not all bad. Songs like “Poison” have that familiar powerful Aussie punk sound and I really love the bigger production. The song “Fragrant Rice” is also a banger that gives me early “Christian Death” vibes. Why the hell didn’t you just move the whole lp in that direction? I had to discuss my disappointment of “Chrome Dipped” with a friend of mine who also was bummed. He summed it up best. The record should have been called “Saw Nick Cave Once”.

-Joel Jett

Axel Rating: Mediocre