Deadsy - Commencement

Deadsy's major label debut Commencement is a dark nu-gothic journey into a place where songwriting doesn't have to be moronic to be scary. Extremely intelligent lyrical content, an absurd yet addicting use of keyboards and fuzzed out bass, and one low range vocal makes this album a wiff of fresh air. That was until it fell into the hands of Elementree/Dreamworks. The new version of Commencement (it was scheduled for release on Elektra several years ago) is like the movie adaptation of a great novel, its still amazingly good but it's not as great as the original experience. What happened? To put it simply, Deadsy's original lineup for Commencement was so far beyond anything commercially acceptable it would have been viewed as an immediate flop by any major label. Sad as it is, the big single is what's important, not the artistically developed masterpiece. But wait! All is not lost. Before it seems like Im going off on a tangeant about how major labels ruin a masterpiece by making it more commercial viable let me say a few things about this album. You havent heard anything like this before. Yea, youve heard Orgy with their droning vocals and 80s keyboard sound, but in all honesty it was a cheap ripoff of Deadsy (Jay Gordon used to play bass for Deadsy way way back when, modified their idea and beat them to the punch commercially). Deadsy writes about such an insanely obscure variety of topics sometimes you just have to sit down, fire up the web browser and do a little research. If you get into it enough, youll soon know more than you ever expected to about such topics as the Urantian religion and its levels of master and slave. "She Likes Big Words" would be the lead off single if it were a perfect world. An upbeat number featuring a few cliche 80s ideals mixed tremendously well with the new style of Deadsy. The Duran Duran-esque keyboards at the beginning followed by the fuzzed out distortion of.. who knows.. a Z-Tar? The song even has appropriate handclaps! Drum machine handclaps that work! True, it used to have an ingenius saxophone solo but youll live without it. Songs like "Lake Waramaug" and "Commencement" are somewhat of the opposite of "She Likes Big Words" in that they dont take the pop route to entertain you, they make use of some of the darkest keyboard sounds they can muster. "Commencement" particularly sums up Deadsy pretty well with its slow build, dark tones, Urantian references, random Dune references, and a bridge that you dont know if you should fall out laughing at, or embrace for its ingeniuity. So Ive obviously got alot to say about Deadsy. Theyve actually been around for a long time and while I think some of their most recent decisions arent so great I completely respect what theyve done musically. The new songs on the album "Key To Grammercy Park", "Winners", "Brand New Love" (Sebadoh), and "Tom Sawyer" (yes, the Rush song) are good but obviously recorded to make things a little more embracable by the general public. The biggest downfall of this album is that "Brand New Love" and "Tom Sawyer" are covers. Maybe its just me, but the cover thing is out of control these days - especially when you get to the point where youre putting not one.. but TWO covers to fill up your album. The songs were there, they didnt need more upbeat filler. So Commencement gets a 4.5 on the manstyle points. Ive got to dock them at least half a point for the double cover, and well.. "Winners" just isnt doing a whole lot for me. I dont want to come across as one of those fans that was so into them back in the day, but sees how theyve sold out now. Deadsy is, and always will be, as much of an image as it is an incredibly clever take on an often overlooked style of music. Commencement may not win you over immediately but eventually it will find its nitche with you, and youll always enjoy it. [www.deadsy.com]