Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Mute Gods, The
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2017
Duration: 57:48
Rating: 2.5/5
Cult singer/bassist Nick Beggs, keyboard wizard Roger King and drumming champ Marco Minnemann make up the supergroup The Mute Gods. In 2016 they put out a very good debut, »Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me«, which, against expectations, wasn’t exactly a cult hit, and now, less than a year later, they’re back with a new studio outing. »Tardigrades Will Inherit The Earth«. Tardigrades are a special kind of primitive microorganism that can survive even the most extreme conditions, like floating around in a vacuum. Undoubtedly a pretty witty title for an album that isn’t all that witty in its songwriting and arrangements, and that in many ways is a considerable step back from the debut and from the famous names that make up The Mute Gods. Anyone who expected more than last time will be even more disappointed now, because the trio of musical masters seems to have forgotten how to come up with interesting ideas and how to handle arranging and production.
Let’s start with the one rare plus of »Tardigrades Will Inherit The Earth«: the lyrics are once again top quality, full of English sarcasm and biting social critique. And that’s about it. The album is wrapped in distinctly dark, at times almost depressing ambient shades, which isn’t necessarily bad, but Beggs’ traditionally ‘cheerful’ voice is anything but suited to that kind of atmosphere. Beggs proved he’s an excellent singer, especially back when he was in Kajagoogoo, but this time he often seems to have ‘thrown’ all his vocal talent ‘out the window’. On most tracks he sounds affected and keeps reaching for the vocoder.
The opener »Animal Army« already fails to impress, even though the band has developed good instrumental chemistry and, technically, all three masters show off some praiseworthy chops, but decidedly too little this time to get them praised to the skies. The main problem with this one, besides the unbelievably bad production, is that arrangement-wise it’s a thoroughly average hybrid of dark prog and art pop with an unconvincing chorus. »We Can’t Carry On«, which flirts with alternative rock, shows clearly how badly Beggs’ vocal approach clashes with the muffled rhythms and boring arrangements. »The Dumbing of the Stupid« comes off as even more superfluous, with its annoying vocoder use and somewhat clichéd alt-rock moves you’d sooner expect from the likes of Coheed and Cambria. The only bright spot this time is the nice female backing harmonies from Nick’s daughter Lula.
The album doesn’t go anywhere from there either. The seriously bad production hurts all three masters, especially Minnemann’s drums, which never get a chance to shine. Every instrument in the mix sounds smeared and indistinct, which is sad as hell, because it wrecks even the rare moments of real songwriting inspiration. »Window Onto the Sun« could have turned out perfectly decent if the lousy production hadn’t killed it. »Early Warning« is an acoustic-symphonic ballad with good potential that ends up awfully dull, like most of the stuff on this album. On the title track Beggs pulls off a second-rate Billy Idol impression, while the rotten production mangles the whole thing and snuffs out the last hope of a quality turnaround. If you ignore the rotten production, the one good moment on the album is the symphonic-prog »The Singing Fish of Batticaloa«, where you can hear that Beggs and King at least picked up something from their time making music with Steve Hackett.
‘Tardigrades will inherit the Earth,’ say The Mute Gods on their slow, boring and poorly produced effort, which does these musicians no credit at all. After the quality debut we expected much, much more from them, but, as so often happens with supergroups like this, expectations end up bigger than the final result.
Line-up
Nick Beggs – vocals, bass guitar, Chapman stick, guitar, keyboards
Roger King – keyboards, guitar, orchestration (8)
Marco Minnemann – drums, guitar (5-7)
GUEST VOCALISTS:
Lula Beggs – backing vocals (3)
Laren King – backing vocals (12)
Production
Roger King
Track list
1. Saltatio Mortis (1:57)
2. Animal Army (5:00)
3. We Can’t Carry On (5:11)
4. The Dumbing Of The Stupid (7:09)
5. Early Warning (3:56)
6. Tardigrades Will Inherit The Earth (5:02)
7. Window Onto The Sun (6:00)
8. Lament (2:01)
9. The Singing Fish Of Batticaloa (8:24)
10. Hallelujah (5:50)
11. The Andromeda Strain (2:57)
12. Stranger Than Fiction (4:21)
