Mr. T Experience - Yesterday Rules - Page 2

There are many examples of heavily documented recording sessions, and I doubt I'm alone in still being mystified by the great albums even if they were turned into docudramas like "Let It Be" or "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart." So even though I've been following the making of this record (along with thousands of MTX fans and blog fanatics), every song is a total surprise and delight.

"She's Not A Flower" starts it off, a faultless radio single begging for some brave Clear Channel deejay to sneak it on the air and make the kids go nuts. As usual with the latter-day Dr. Frank, you get a huge pile of hooks, a melody that won't leave your head, enough powerhouse bass and drums to make you instinctively do the goofy dance, and lyrics so cleverly poetic that the song completely changes once you've taken the time to follow the story.

In the case of "Flower," Frank tells us it's stupid to use the usual romantic metaphors ... and yet a large part of the song's charm is the use of those allegedly tired love descriptions. After all, adding "not" to "she's a flower" or "you're a free bird" doesn't dull the flavor of those old metaphors that worked as well in Song of Solomon as they do in a good pop song. (Okay, maybe Song of Solomon didn't use "free bird" and "flower," but it did have lots of stuff about "my gal's breasts are like the pyramids topped with crazy flashing police lights" and the like.)

Then there's "Fucked Up On Life," a tune that manages to sound exactly like MTX and nobody else while also sounding like the secret track from an early Elvis Costello & the Attractions album. Chiming guitars and high-keys piano, swooping Byrdsy-Beach Boys harmonies ... and right when you're getting used to Frank's razor-sharp thesaurus-stretching lyrics, he lets loose with a savage, sputtering, "Dum didda dum dibba dum dum dibba dub dum day! I never know what I should do or say."

Next you get a pair of vaguely biblical-themed songs. "Oh, Just Have Some Faith In Me" starts off like the power-punk-pop MTX of old, but then it goes into a drunken choir / church organ chorus you will have stuck in your skull about two seconds in ... and right when you're thinking this is the transcendent Dr. Frank vocal, he goes ahead and does the 1950s' dance-craze deal of "Come on, come on, come on, come on!" Damn him to hell.

Article Author: Ken Layne

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