Grace Hotel
  Overall rating: ++-

Album Review

When I first put this on, it grabbed me right off with Free, but from there is meandered between outstanding, and not so outstanding. I was all set to trash it, and then a little bird chirped in my ear, "Why trash an album that's almost 10 years old? To what purpose?" I nodded sagely, and then flicked the little thing off my shoulder. As it fell stunned to the floor, Simi our half Siamese cat pounced on the poor thing. Still, it gave me something to think on. So I decided to give this one a real kick at the can.

Begging At The Temple Gate Called Beautiful is a strange and cool album. It's got more energy than a bag of Canadian gymnasts, but for all the good intentions it's a pretty uneven album - although it is pretty much consistently noisy. I guess a name like Clash of Symbols should sort of make that obvious.

Mike Stand fronts the band, and I've heard of him before, but not any of his previous stuff, so I'm not packing baggage for the guy. I've been playing this one off and on for a few months trying to "get" the album, and it does grow better over time. There are a handful of outstanding tracks like Free, Red, Ask and Tear, which push this one over the hump. In fact this one has really grown on me.

So to the little bird who gave so much that I might learn, thanks.

~ Jevon