MIKE ALLEN - CIRRHOTIC

Some people have the vision and all the skills it takes to compose and shape a release by themselves. Most people, however, really need the relationship that a band provides to transcend their own state of mind and create something truly new and exciting. Members of a band can use each other as sounding boards to find out what works best, to create music which they could not possibly create on their own. And while people may not always agree with the direction things are going, it is important to not create in a vacuum. Not everyone can make an enjoyable album entirely on their own.
Mike Allen’s disc, Cirrhotic, suffers from the lack of perspective that writing and recording completely by yourself can bring. It feels like someone’s multi-track home recordings; interesting only to the musician himself, and bogged down by too many tracks that sound the same. The disc generally falls into a few categories:
1. Plodding bass line, no percussion, and distorted vocals.
2. Acoustic guitar, reverb-soaked vocals, piano, no percussion.
3. Instrumental industrial beats and noises that you heard a thousand times before that really go nowhere.
There are some good ideas on this disc, but I feel that Mike Allen alone cannot bring these to the level of greatness that they could possibly achieve if he had someone there to reign him in. He needs a producer to help shape the raw talent and ideas that he has.
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF HERE.