WIDE MOUTH MASON
Shot Down Satellites
Frontside Music
· Six albums in, the latest from Wide Mouth Mason was three years in the making.
The good news is that Wide Mouth Mason’s Shot Down Satellites has a harder edge than you might expect from the band, since they’ve built a discography on a Maroon5-meets-Big-Sugar sound (and an altogether funkier vibe than one might have expected out of Saskatoon). Shot Down Satellites brims with fuzzed-out, Zeppelin-style blues-rock guitars, and lead singer Shaun Verrault is definitely leaning more to the side of shrieking than crooning.
The bad news is that in the rush to butch up their sound, their upbeat punk-funkiness has definitely been diluted and sweet melodies have been sacrificed. In their move to explore a heavier, more straight-ahead rock sound, they’ve lost track of one of their prime strengths – the ability to create and deliver a sweet lyric hung from a meaty hook. That said, Shot Down Satellites gets stronger as it goes along, with the last four tracks being the most memorable. Considering they’re six albums into a career, Shot Down Satellites is probably one of those in-between albums bands occasionally make that points in the direction of musical choices they haven’t fully grown comfortable with. If you’re a big fan, check it out. Otherwise, cross your fingers and hope it doesn’t take them another three years for the next effort.
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