Mad Season was the
brainchild of
Mike McCready of
Pearl Jam. He decided he wanted to do a
side project with his buddies, under no pressure to create any particular type of
music. He got
high school buddy
Barret Martin (then the drummer of the
Screaming Trees, and also a studio
drummer,
conguero,
cellist,
concert bassist,
marimbist, and
vibist),
Baker, a studio
bass player, and
Alice in Chains singer
Layne Staley together and told them they were going to make some
real music. They gigged locally for a while in
Seattle, writing and hanging out. They also scored vocal superman
Mark Lanegan for harmonies and low-end vox on a couple of tunes.
The result was a fabulous album titled "Above" with songs written with McCready's pseudo-floydian style and lyrical harmonies of a quality only Staley has achieved in modern years. The ten song set list (with short descriptions) goes like this:
1. Wake Up (a steady, slow, eight-minute song, reminiscent of Pink Floyd)
2. X-Ray mind (going in and out of a pseudo-afro-cuban beat, X-Ray Mind jumps into heavy, super slow rock with a great example of the aforementioned vocal harmonies)
3. River of Deceit (very slow and soft, with a heavy blues influence)
4. Above (steady rock with a very helter-skelter style chorus)
5. Artificial Red (straight-up blues, baby!)
6. Lifeless Dead (this one will rock your world, but very slow)
7. I Don't Know Anything (the heaviest song on the album, this angsty song rocks, while keeping a high level of musical integrity.)
8. Long Gone Day (my personal favorite, this lonely, mellow little song about love lost will make you want to cry)
9. November Hotel (this instrumental piece shows McCready's full range of talent, from the mellow to the rockin'.)
10. All Alone (the perfect end to an outstanding musical experience, All Alone is almost orchestral. A beautiful piece.)