Mutual Admiration Society - Mutual Admiration Society

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Music reviews of Mutual Admiration Society

Music Review: Bad Mix, Slow Temp but Good Idea
Rating: 3 Stars

The harmony vocals on the album are also mixed too low. Both Toad and Nickel Creek have trademark harmony vocals, and it's a shame that this element was under-used and mixed too low. Also, there should have been a duo between Glen and Sarah. This should have been a no-brainer, and while were on the sujbect of vocals, Sarah should have sung "Trouble" as Glen had to strain a little on that one.

Also, the overall album is too slow. Notice, I'm not using the word "mellow." The tempos are all slow, even the mid-tempo tracks are too slow (all 3 of them). It's as if every member of the band took a valium before recording, or if they were using a click track (since there is no drummer), the person setting up the click track popped a valium. While Nickel Creek can get away with not having a drummer due to the percussive manner in which they play their instruments, there is a lot of guitar strumming on this album, and it's slow strumming a lot of the time. They need to hire a drummer or let Chris Thile dictate the pace. The little bit of hand percussion on the album just doesn't cut it.

Finally, this album was recorded 3 years ago, and the relatively young members of NC have matured by leaps and bounds. I'm sure that if this is not a one-off project, the next MAS album will be a true collaboration. What we have with this album is a Glen Phillips solo album recorded in 6 days with Nickel Creek serving as session musicians. I'm sure the next album will be given more studio time and hopefully, the production and mix will be kinder to the band as a whole (and producer Ethan Johns is no hack, not to mention he is a drummer which makes the album being so slow even more an enigma, but I guess you can't get it right every time).

This CD was a good idea. You take Glen Phillips who ushered in the whole folk meets rock meets California sunshine vibe of the 90's and you cross it with Nickel Creek's newgrass meets folk meets California sunshine vibe of today. The subsequent live performances of the quartet (expanded by two members for the official album tour) have shown the growth of the group, and I am looking forward to the next MAS album.

Description of Mutual Admiration Society

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop
• Rock