King's X - "Manic Moonlight"

King's X - Manic Moonlight
2001, Metal Blade

1. Believe
2. Manic Moonlight
3. Yeah
4. False Alarm
5. Static
6. Skeptical Winds
7. The Other Side
8. Vegetable
9. Jenna
10. Water Ceremony

Manic Moonlight is the second of what I refer to as the King's X "experimental" discs. However, unlike Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous I don't think Manic works as well. Yes... the boys were definitely in their "don't give a crap what anybody thinks" phase. They use looping drum samples throughout to provide sort of a base line for the songs. After a few seconds, though, it's just regular ol' King's X. I don't really understand all the hate this album got originally. I was in college at the time and a friend loaned me the CD to listen to and neither of us really knew what to make of it. It wasn't some techno abomination, but it wasn't stupendous either. There are a couple of tracks I absolutely love like the title track, "Yeah," and "Jenna." Though, like I said, I don't think the experimentation pays off as much. Take "Skeptical Winds" for example - the vocals are spoken word and the entire thing is rather repetitive.  Whatever I might think of this disc at any given time I have to applaud the band for trying something new. Manic isn't lazy like Tape Head so that's something I suppose.

Useless Fact: "Water Ceremony" isn't even a real song. It's the guys drinking water, burping, and laughing. I bet it was hilarious in the studio. On the disc, eh... not so much.