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Five and Dime It

by Spencer Ross

I live in Canada now. It's only customary to find out what's hot on the Canadian music scene. So I was flipping through my neighbor, Tess's, CD collection and listened to this band called Moist. Apparently they're one of the biggest Canadian bands (other than BNL, Tragically Hip, Our Lady Peace, and Sloan), so with that, I went out and bought their latest album, Mercedes Five and Dime. From the moment this album opened, I was hooked. I don't think I've heard alternative rock this good, yet this unique, since I got Third Eye Blind's Blue.

The album, while somewhat somber, opens up with "Underground," in which lead vocalist David Usher sings "all dementia memory brought for all the weakness we can't tell/ understood that i discover right here everthing is well." The beginning of the song sounds like the throb of a boiling pot of water, overlaid by an organ. Eventually this builds up to the actual beginning of the song. The next song, "Breathe" almost sounds like that Savage Garden song, although it's definitely a lot better, particularly when the chorus kicks in. This song is also where the name of the album comes from. "Breathe" sounds like the Radiohead song creep, but is a lot less eerie.

Moist does have their own sound, and the whole album is indicative of it, yet it's not like they're moving from one song to the next. The songs flow together yet none of them sound the same. One of my favorite songs on the album is "Comes and Goes," which describes Usher's emotional erraticism. "I live my life/it's getting better every day/I don't feel quite right/it's getting better every day," he sings, as the drums progress from a slow beat to a rock beat. This is probably one of the more mainstream radio songs, yet is followed by "Mike Hammer," which has an elegant, yet sad piano solo. The delicate blend of instruments earns Mercedes Five and Dime 4 stars, for showing talent in a mainstream CD. Unlike with rockers Our Lady Peace, Moist shows style that varies through all songs, yet shows room for growth from their previous two albums, with room to still grow in future albums. It's easy to dismiss a band for selling out to the mainstream, but when you've got it, you've got it. Might as well show it.

11/28/00