Fire On Corridor X

It's not surprising that a new band might have some of the sense of epic reach as prime Jane's Addiction, say, but it's all the more interesting to hear a newer group exploring some of the sonic choices of bands that had initially followed in that band's wake, like the still underrated God Machine and the more obscure Pusherman -- or even, at a stretch, the earliest work by Verve. Thus the feeling of All the Saints, whose Fire on Corridor X reconnects dots from arena-scaled riffs and amplifiers to an almost dreamy, lost-in-it-all singing approach, not too far removed from the equal number of hordes trying to clone Spacemen 3 but not simply aiming to rewrite Playing with Fire, either. At its strongest, with songs like the archly titled "Regal Regalia" and "Papering Fix," the band kicks up a huge sounding storm while still providing space for the almost preternaturally clean singing boring through the mix -- not as an artificially high volume element, more like serenity in the midst of a storm. Perhaps rightfully, the title track, with its imagery of destruction and near-science-fiction sensibilities, is the most successful take on this approach. On relatively calmer moments like "Hornett" and especially "Leeds," things aren't as interesting, but still make for an enjoyable enough of the time. ~ Ned Raggett