R.E.M. - Omnipop (It's Only A Flesh Wound Lambchop)

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Music reviews of Omnipop (It's Only A Flesh Wound Lambchop)

Music Review: A Mostly Failed Experiment Disguised as an Album.
Rating: 2 Stars

With Omnipop, Phillips makes a fairly significant departure from her previous work, as she incorporates a variety of electronic sounds into the layered approach she perfected with Martinis & Bikinis. She also uses a few instruments (horns, slide guitar) we haven't heard from her before. While I commend Phillips for exploring new possibilities and refusing to rest on her laurels, but she didn't spend enough time developing the songs and forming a coherent album. The sounds she's created usually occur in undeveloped songs with no memorable hooks or emotive lyrics.

Omnipop begins promisingly enough with, "Entertainmen", which seems to be Phillips's interesting, poetic take on female objectification. The song is effectively propelled by a throbbing base/synthesizer line that is nicely complimented by an aching electric guitar. "Power World" is one of the few other songs with any sort of hook. The infectious guitar and harmony make up for the trite, cliched lyrics about the brain-deadening effects of television ("Look at how you washed your brain down the info TV drain"..."Our ideas of perfect are some imperfect").

The rest of the album contains vaguely experimental tracks that feel unfinished or slight. "Plastic Is Forever" in an amorphous track with numerous dissonant sounds that never congeal into anything memorable. It doesn't help that the lyrics are a typical anti-materialism diatribe (by 1996, berating television had become trite). "Zero Zero Zero!" has opaque lyrics present in a bland soundscape of understated horns and slide guitar. "Skeleton" (perfectly titled), is a sonic experiment with all the emotional resonance of a fossil. Most of the remaining tracks are in the same vein; slight and forgettable, or indistinctly experimental.

Despite a few bright spots, Omnipop feels like an unfocused, failed experiment. It seems like Phillips didn't know were she wanted to go when she made it. If the individual songs (expermients) were appealing or worthwhile in and of themselves, this could have compensated for the album's unfocused nature. As it is, the most of the parts aren't interesting, which makes the whole even worse. I can only hope this record will serve to represent an awkward growth phase for a unique, talented artist.

Omnipop was the first Phillips album to receive tepid reviews from both critics and fans. I'm not sure if this discouraged Phillips, but she hasn't made a sound since 1996, apart from a best-of compilation in 1999 which probably fulfilled her contract with Virgin. Hopefully, we haven't heard the last of her.

Note: Those who are just discovering Sam Phillips will notice several positive reader-reviews of Omnipop. At the risk of sounding self-righteous, these were obviously written by ardent fans who were determined to give it a high rating. As so often happens with public reviews, these reviewers are such avid fans that they've lost any sense of objectivity. If you're just discovering Phillips, start with Cruel Inventions or Martinis & Bikinis.

Description of Omnipop (It's Only A Flesh Wound Lambchop)

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