Degeneration

Gus Gus released their second single of the year by way of the big download services this week in what must be an attempt to build momentum for their album "Forever" which is now scheduled for a 2007 release. I found their earlier single "Need In Me" a tasteless rehash of ideas the collective have been batting around for ages, but this release really brings down my expectations for the new album. None of the tracks are vocal driven, which is how I prefer Gus Gus, so I might not be the audience they are targeting on the "Mallflowers" EP but they just don't pull any of the songs together. Take the title track which finds them in trance territory, it has a promising start but derails around the three minute mark of a nine minute song. If you run out of ideas please just end the song. It's that simple. Listeners aren't going to strangle you because you choose the strength of an individual song over adhering to a genre's conventions. "Degeneration" and "You Make Me Feel" do fair slightly better and are something that you might listen to a second or third time but they also really lack that creative spark that pretty much all Gus Gus material once had. I didn't love everything they did, but they tried new ideas and pushed boundaries which is something I just don't hear with the recent material.

Pineapple Records has most of the EP up on their myspace and as of this posting all those songs up can be downloaded there for free so check them out and make up your own mind.