'I'm just doin' the best I can - but I'm not your alpha man...' (Blue - The Mission)

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Product:	Blue - The Mission
Date:	19/05/01 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great, really dark lyrics

Disadvantages: sounds to rushed

According to the press release, one will find the quote of "setting a deadline to record the album in eight weeks", is very obvious. Very little time seems to have been spent on the production of this album - a pity really, as it does contain some of Hussey's better songs. Only one track from "Blue" has decent production work, that track being the emotive "That Tears Shall Drown The Wind". Like The Mission's earlier "Masque" album, it might have been (possibly) a more wiser move if "Blue" was released as the first much threatened solo album from Mr Hussey (how many albums has Hussey written that ended up as Mission albums now, I wonder?)

The album has a (sort of) retro "Sisters" feel to it in places; a lot of aggressive, heavily over-driven bass lines akin to Craig Adams (who was not actually a Mission member at this point in The Mission's timeline) from the Sisters early days, such as (the magnificient) "Dying Room" which must rank as one of Hussey's darkest compositions to date. Another retro step on this album was the inclusion of the reworked version of "Forever More", originally from the "Children", which was retitled for "Blue" as "Evermore & Again" (which was definately reguguratated - trouble is, I can't tell which end it came out of.) The opening track, an alternative version of the European single, "Coming Home", has an even more retro feel to it. Those die-hard fans of The Mish (like myself) who were originally Dead Or Alive fans (from our introduction to the axe-weilding Mr Hussey in the VERY early eighties), you may notice that the feel of this track (drum lines, tempo et al) is very akin to a grunge version of "You Make Me Wanna", from DOA's "Sophisticated Boom Boom" album. However, the album version of "Coming Home", like some of the other tracks on "Blue",
sounds far too rushed, what with the lack of depth of bass and the drums and the mish-mash of guitar screaching and wah-wah's just hasn't worked this time round. If "Blue" had had a simular sound quality to "Neverland", for example, this album would have been an absolute belter.

Some excellent songs on the album, even though it's rough sounding. "Bang Bang", "That Tears Shall Drown The Wind", "Cannibal", "Alpha Man" and "Dying Room" are good but it were let down in places by the production quality (and the incomplete sleeve). Judging by the fact that Hussey now seems to have a hand in every part of The Mission's output (skills he no doubt picked up from the unparalleled genius of Pete Burns), he has let himself down here. We can only hope that some of these songs get the "Resurrection" completely re-recorded from scratch) treatment in the near future, as some of the stuff has not been fully justified on this album.

Summary: