Blue Green Orange

This is not Scenery and Fish, and it's not Dig.

This is a CD by a band that had started out with hard rock, and then evolved into alternative... only to hit another level of their evolution with this album.

After listening to this over and over again, and now hearing a couple of singles from their forthcoming album, I see this as a stepping stone to something remarkable.

That's not to downplay the greatness of this album... I think of the three released at the time that I'm writing this, it is their most solid and innovative effort. I simply think that most people were disappointed with it solely because it was "too soft."

Drop your expectations and listen to the band for the first time all over again... if you get the point of this album, you'll realize how wonderful it really is.

"Blue Green Orange" is a decent album. Brian Byrne sounds good. He's both strong and warm. Whether it's intentional or not he ends up sounding like Thom Yorke a bit much. The melody line and guitar of "When Did You Get Back From Mars" also match Radiohead too closely and not as successfully. The lyrics of the album are a bit weaker than Edwin's too and once or twice they dip into high school stoned poetry territory and disappoint compared with gems like "And the Experience" from "Dig." "Blue Green Orange" also relies on a few breakdowns and rhythm riffs we've already heard.

On the positive side "Blue Green Orange" has all the same terrific musical chemistry. I wish to God that more musicians cared about crafting their songs and giving each instrument space to be heard. Dynamics are all but lost in the slick post-REM/U2 world of "rock" in the quest of radio-able songs. "Blue Green Orange" has all the right dynamics and energy. It's easy to listen to and it does rock.

"Blue Green Orange" hurts because it's one more step IME has taken to making themselves a footnote in music history. They seem destined to rock-apocrypha with this latest effort and it's a brutal shame. They could've become one of the great rock bands with just a few more efforts to match "Dig" and "Scenery..."

This album often meets Dig's progessiveness and Scenery And Fish's sticky hooks somewhere in the middle, with jams that touch both on the former's technical excellence and the latter's great atmospherics. Loops, samples, and effects add to that atmosphere. As for the then "new guy", Brian Byrne's voice is richer, fuller, more emotive, and possibly more powerful than Edwin's, though at this point lacking Ed's polish on record. Guitarist Jag Tanna discovered his knack for writing perfect mood music and delivering it with a greater depth than the other two albums. Bassist Bruce Gordon often layers his sound with Tanna's in the same way as before, but also in hypnotic, repeating riffs over which the guitarist makes all the chord changes, resulting in a different, interesting sound. Percussion is back in a big way here, with broader world music arrangements and a Christian Tanna who shows the intensity of Dig and the subtle nuance of S&F. His lyrics are even stranger than before, but arranged in a well-structured, aesthetically pleasing way. Byrne himself writes the lyrics for the final track, but it's almost impossible to tell the difference.

This disc has no all-encompassing feel like the other two, and its journey into so many different moods takes away the listen-straight-through quality the other two albums had. However, the thicker bass and lighter guitar tones render even the three or four bottom-heavy riffs stripped of any alt/grunge sensibility, and that is a definite step forward. Each song is great on its own, but doesn't necessarily lead into the next one, thus interrupting the flow. Still, this is a rewarding listen, and paves the way for even greater things.