In Glorious Times by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Even though the "good" album is said to have a diversity of style and a unity of mood, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's In Glorious Times resists falling under such a simple adjective. To say the least, the Oakland band's fourth creation is a tour de weird of Art school metal. Lopsided time signatures and tempos that change five and six times in one song immediately bring to mind fellow lords of noisic Mr. Bungle. However while that band is always willing to sacrifice structure for their colourful sonic theatrics, SGM always manages to maintain a singularity in each song-- despite the feeling that one is speeding through one of Dali's surreal landscapes. In terms of the emotion created, the album is frequently similar to the terrifying violence of Stealing Babies, if their music were built up slowly then warped, twisted around, sped up then slowed back to apologetic lulls. This is the sound of an orchestra on LSD all fighting with each other. However, it would be wrong to call this album dissonant or chaotic just because they self-consciously oppose traditonal note-arrangments. It is not noise used as music, but music turned into noise. Experimental? Yes. Disarming? Yes. Confusing? Oh, hell yes. But every movement of every song is meticulously planned to force an exact psychological reaction from the listener.