Slipped disc #10: To My Surprise

Without meaning it to sound like a pun, it was not a surprise when To My Surprise, the Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan’s off-Slipknot project’s eponymous debut album failed to reap during the autumnal harvest time. It was far too melodic and mellow for the ‘Maggots’ and, for the rest, it was a vague release that might have been on the edge of esoteric, or merely - too obscure. You know, even StoneSour changed their musical expression significantly between two live visits to London; the darker, Alice In Chains’ overtones of the debut album got lost in the later live translations in favour of more direct and straighter rock sound.

‘To My Surprise’ is produced by Rick Rubin, who signed on immediately upon hearing a demo of album opener ‘The World’s Too Small’, an acoustic-driven mid-paced rocker that combines passion with solid rhythm for quite a magnetic effect. ‘To My Surprise’ then proceeds to alternate between rocking - ‘Get It To Go’, ‘In The Mood’, ‘Easy Or Not’ - and slower songs, such as ‘Say Goodbye’, ‘Turn It Back Around’, ‘This Life’…

Crahan, the mad genius and beer keg percussionist from Slipknot is behind a proper kit and he handles more conventional duty with power and finesse, as songs require. Singer Brandon Darner sounds like a true-blue rocker of the Paul Rogers’ Bad Company-vintage and leads these songs into startlingly fresh, unashamedly melodic and at once challenging and familiar domains. Light and dark, melody and melancholy, raw and grit: Joy Division and The Stooges, The Beatles and Alice In Chains, The Doors and The Cure...

Variety, don’t you just love it? One song recalls Detroit proto-punk, while the next might mingle with bubblegum pop, countrified-turn-rockstastic ‘Blue’ rubs grooves with gloomily magnificent ‘Say Goodbye’, directness and complex arrangements co-exist happily together. The closing ‘Who’s To Say’ employs psychedelic atmo and then spices it up to hover over the stoner vista.

With all out-Slipknot activities suspended as the band is busy completing supplant to ‘Iowa’ with Mr Rubin, it is of genuine concern whether To My Surprise will make it to Euro- stages, in particular after suchlike reception of this album. It is pity, and mass public’s loss, as we have had colleagues claim that TMS’ is an album that is better than the latest Michael Jackson clone’s, Justin Timberlake, one.

If I had some music tokens, as well as all this knowledge and such refine taste (get outta here! - Fashionista Ed.), I’d urge you to explore To My Surprise. Open up lobes and tang will follow.

8.6/10