The voice that forged the term “desert rock” – from his years in Kyuss, to follow up bands Unida, Slo Burn, Hermano and, most recent, Vista Chino – John Garcia has spent over two decades setting the standard for the sound of stoner rock; it is often imitated but never really duplicated. His newest musical endeavour, and first solo album, is comprised of 11 tracks of material that Garcia has cut from recording sessions over the years; given the fact that each of these tracks varies in age and contributing musicians (everyone from The Doors’ Robbie Krieger to Danko Jones has had some kind of an input) it creates the worry that the end result could end up sounding sloppy and disjointed.
As soon as fist pumping anthem ‘My Mind’ opens the record, however, all fears are put to bed, as Garcia’s voice ties each track together with as much fluidity as is likely to exist in the parched terrain of this music. There are hints of every band that John has ever been in present on each track – including the lazy meandering of Vista Chino within ‘Rolling Stoned’ (this is actually a Black Mastiff cover) and the rush of ‘Saddleback’ which nods towards Slo Burn.
There’s certainly no shortage of variety and the mood noticeably becomes more sombre as the album progresses, the turning point being that of “coming home” track ‘5,000 Miles’ and from this point onwards every song is decidedly more personal. The idea of Garcia as a songwriter rather than a vocalist is kind of a lukewarm idea – Josh Homme and Brant Bjork wrote all of the Kyuss material – this a collection of good songs, but they by no means make for an amazing album. Returning to opening track ‘My Mind’, which is huge on chorus, it feels as though John has blown his load way too soon on the record, as the rest of the material doesn’t quite live up to its enormity.
It doesn’t really pay to say “this has the potential to become something much greater with the next album” as Garcia has had more than 20 years to hone the craft of songwriting – if this is as good as it gets then he’s better off sticking to singing and letting someone else write the music.
(6/10 Angela Davey)
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