Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom

Meatbodies Chad Ubovich went through a lot of trials and tribulations during the long time spent making the bands fourth album, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom. A quick list includes kicking a drug addiction, losing studio access, moving out of his long-time residence, and getting so sick he was hospitalized and had to relearn how to walk and play guitar. Oh, and the COVID-19 pandemic, just for good measure. While all this was going on, Ubovich managed to release a batch of cleaned-up demos titled 333 that saw the group shifting away from the blown-out garage psych of earlier work toward something heavier and indebted to shoegaze. More specifically, the American brand that added bits of grunge, alt-rock, and metal to the dreamy swirl of effects the genre was best known for. To that end, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom takes it one step further, and its sound is stadium-sized, polished to a fine sheen, and epic in the same way that groups like Smashing Pumpkins and Janes Addiction could be in their early days. In fact, one might be hard-pressed to guess that the album didnt come out in the early 90s as songs like "HOLE" or "ICNNVR2" betray no influences or sounds invented after 1992, and tracks like the majestic "Gate" or the gentle swaying "Billow" would fit perfectly between those aforementioned groups on a mixtape. Its certainly no sin to make music as nostalgic or in thrall to an era as Meatbodies do here, and for the most part they inject their sepia-toned songs with enough energy and emotion to at least sound as good as the bands who were floating around in the second tier back in the day, like Smashing Orange or Fudge. What the album lacks is any sense of excitement or emotion. One might think with all the stuff Ubovich went through the album might not come across so measured and detached. Songs like the thundering grunge metal "They Came Down" or the stretched-out space garage rocker "Move" sound really good, but ultimately have no real point of view. Its too bad since the songs and sound of 333 were quite inspired, definitely weirder, and filled with genuine moments of surprise. Here everything feels like a copy of something that had already been done better by another band. In the end, theres little to no reason to pull this record out instead of Siamese Dream or Nothings Shocking. Or the other three Meatbodies albums, which have all the oddball thrills and unique perspective Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom seems to have lost along the bumpy journey to completion. ~ Tim Sendra