Record Label: Cooking Vinyl
Genre: Goth
Band Link:
Buy on Amazon.com link

Oh, thank god. With all this eyeliner emo out there, the world needs the Mission. Cmon Wayne, show these lame suburban kids how to sound cool sounding mopey!

Honestly, my first impression was that the band sounded like they spent a lot of time making bland songs sound good. I found the overproduction over-the-top, the songwriting lackluster, and Wayne Hussey’s voice, while he can still sing, weary and lacking that dark, sexy power that 1) made the Mission such a cool band, and 2) kept the mopey and macabre lyrics from sounding like bad high school poetry.

But on my second listen, I found myself warming up to it. Outside the more radio-friendly hits that are loaded toward the front of the album (including, oddly, “Keep It In the Family” and “Belladonna” – seemingly back-to-back Anthrax references?), the album is decidedly decent.

Of course, there are still overproduced tics that you wish weren’t there – like layered vocals or bad background singing that tries to squeeze some radio pop into otherwise good songs. “Blush” and “Chinese Burn” would be tremendous tunes if the producer had shown more restraint.

But the album really takes off after the midpoint, and I totally dig the second half, especially the “bonus” tracks. And I love the musicianship, which is true to Mission form – the bubbly and rolling percussion, the bass and guitars with their dipped-in-liquid-metal sound and penchant for Eastern melodies.

This is a long album with long songs. Some of it gets bogged down under its own weight, but overall, it’s a solidly decent release. With some trimming – in production and length, it could even be great.

Bottom Line:
Notable Tracks: Blush, Chinese Burn, Draped In Red, Running With Scissors, Grotesque, Fight the Good Fight
Overall Rating: