Album: Shangri-La Dee Da Release Date: 6/19/2001 Length: 47:13 Label: Atlantic Rating: 1.3 |
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| Track Listing | |
| 1. Dumb Love (2:51) | |
| 2. Days of the Week (2:35) | |
3. Coma (3:41)  |
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| 4. Hollywood Bitch (2:43) |
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5. Wonderful (3:47)  |
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| 6. Black Again (3:26) | |
| 7. Hello It's Late (4:22) | |
| 8. Too Cool Queenie (2:47) |
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| 9. Regeneration (3:55) | |
| 10. Bi-Polar Bear (5:04) | |
| 11. Transmissions From a Lonely Room (3:15) | |
| 12. A Song for Sleeping (4:15) | |
| 13. Long Way Home (4:32) | |
| Review | |
| "I think I'll review Shangri-La Dee Da next," Luke Adams told his Apropos of Nothing cohort, Dan Kricke. "Our review page needs a little more red." | |
| Dan laughed. "Yes, I'd imagine it would get a rating of about a four from me. Maybe even a three. Some of the softer songs were okay, but it was definitely not a good CD." | |
| Luke thought that Dan was far too easy when he reviewed and rated CD's; he had yet to give anything, the new Cake CD included, below a 6.4. "It will be lucky to get a two from me," replied Luke. | |
| It happened that quickly. He had fallen prey to the most common mistake known to music reviewers -- basing their opinion of an album on a few listens in the past. In this case, Luke had not actually listened to Shangri-La Dee Da since last autumn. He had grabbed it shortly after its June 2001 release, played it a few times over the course of a couple weeks, did not enjoy it, and had scarcely glanced at it since. | |
| After his conversation with Dan, Luke realized precisely this fact. "What if," he thought, "It turns out that it is better than I remembered?" However, Luke also recognized something else -- in some of his previous reviews, such as that of Days of the New's self-titled second release, Pearl Jam's Yield, or even Radiohead's Kid A, listening to the album over and over prior to posting the review had skewed his judgment a little. Looking back on what he had written about those discs now, he realized that he had probably overrated them a little, as they were not ones that he still listened to consistently. | |
| So during the process of reviewing to the newest full-length release from '90's rockers Stone Temple Pilots, Luke was torn. He was acutely aware that after finishing his review, he would probably not listen to this CD ever again, unless perhaps all of his others were stolen (even thieves would have enough taste to leave Shangri-La Dee Da behind, he reasoned). On the other hand, he realized that Dan just might be right. Some of these softer songs weren't all that bad, were they? He pulled the disc out, blew the dust off, and popped it into his stereo. | |
| The best way to listen to Shangri-La Dee Da is to skip the first four tracks entirely. These first few songs open the disc by employing a bland, recycled formula that has been used in popular rock songs for years. They are just not worth hearing over and over again. You might as well just flip on MTV, if this is the kind of rock music you are looking for. | |
| With track five, the tolerable section of the album commences. "Wonderful" is one of Shangri-La Dee Da's stronger songs, providing a surprisingly catchy melody, despite decidedly less-than-wonderful lyrics such as "I wanna ask you to forgive me / I haven't been the best with all that I had." This turns out to be the apex of the CD, as "Wonderful" is followed by "Black Again", which begins another downward slide. This song, as is the case with many of the sub-par tracks on this record (which is, in essence, all of them) has the potential to be something decent, which is what makes its mediocrity seem all the more disappointing. In the case of "Black Again," a driving guitar riff kicks things off, leading the listener to believe that perhaps it could rise above the boring "modern rock" sound of the album's first few songs, but the guitars almost immediately retreat into another soft, three-and-a-half minute generic song. By this point, you may feel inclined to take out this CD and listen to one that you actually like -- you should listen to this temptation, as Shangri-La Dee Da does not get much better. In fact, I think I will do that now. | |
| I am having a tough time trying to determine exactly what demographic this record set out to appeal to. Popular radio has apparently given up on the drivel contained within Shangri-La Dee Da's forty-seven minutes of running time -- have you heard a Stone Temple Pilots single since last year's "Days of the Week"? Even long-time STP fans may feel let down by this album, since it is such a different approach than the one they used throughout most of the nineties. | |
| It is really not worth going over, in detail, the last few tracks found here. Only one word is needed to do this, and that word is, quite simply, "boring." When there is so much music to be discovered and heard in the world, it is a waste of your time to listen to something like Shangri-La Dee Da. | |
| "Long Way Home" faded from his speakers, and Luke breathed a sigh of relief. His last listen of Shangri-La Dee Da was complete. | |
| As he added the final words to his latest review, he became fairly certain that he would not look back at his rating and regret awarding this disc more than it deserved. But had he, in fact, been a little too hard on it? He put some thought into this matter, ejected the CD from his stereo and snapped it in half. | |
| No. | |
| Rating: 1.3 | |
| - Luke Adams |
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