God Is A Bullet - Mission (The) > Reviews > God is a Bullet

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Lacking inspiration
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	Well - produced
Disadvantages:	Flat and uninspiring

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

The Mission are a curious band in a way, still going and not only that but still going on in much the same way as in their late 80s heyday. The question, however, with every release since about 1992, has always been and continues to be: Does this new album match up to their classic albums "The First Chapter" and "Children"?

Certainly with their two albums they made in the mid to late 90s this was not the case. Then they suddenly returned to form with 2001's "Aura". And so the question this time round is perhaps a little different: Is the newfound form they discovered with the Aura album maintained on this release?

I would have to say it isn't- not because this isn't decent or well-produced music- it's just that their new album, "God is a Bullet", sounds a little... well, flat.

The first track of the new album, Still Deep Waters, starts slowly and ominously, before getting going (as opposed to kicking in) with a mid-paced, almost ponderous rhythm and the trademark Mission guitar twang in the background. Unfortunately a few of the note progressions played by the guitar have been used a number of times before on other Mission songs, so this doesn’t really qualify as an original track in my opinion.

Keep it in the Family is somewhat reminiscent of early-90s Mission, circa the Masque album, with an almost Celtic ballad feel to it. This isn’t bad at all, but again it sounds familiar.

Belladonna is better, in that it doesn’t remind me of any other particular Mission song. This is another mid-paced guitarfest but one that I think will grow on me as I feel it has a few subtleties perhaps missing from the first two tracks.

To Love & To Kill With the Very Same Hand is a suitably overblown title for what feels like quite an overblown song. Oddly enough this one reminds me of latter-day Manic Street Preachers, and not just because of the excessively long title. Unfortunately it isn't as good or as well-crafted as most Manics songs...

The album continues in much the same vein throughout- Draped in Red in particular reminds me a little bit of early Cult, which is no bad thing- and perhaps some of the Mission’s earlier tracks. The pace doesn’t change dramatically, the chords and choruses and guitar work are all familiar. This certainly isn’t an experimental piece of work, but one gets the impression that vocalist Wayne Hussey is content to produce a Mission signature album rather than push the boat out and create something that’s either much better or much worse.

This certainly isn’t a classic Mission album (I think those days are long gone) but it’s solid enough in a way and has a few interesting tracks. It isn’t as impressive overall as the Aura album that preceded this one, but perhaps part of the reason for that is that Aura was not only the first new studio album for a long time, but the first decent studio album for an even longer time.

If you’re an avid Mission fan, this is probably worth getting- however if you liked their classic albums of the late 80s and very early 90s and then kind of drifted away, you may not be so enthusiastic. I'm finding myself in the position of *wanting* to like it- I always want to like their albums- but I just can't summon up enough enthusiasm about it, which must mean there's something- unless you're a truly rabid fan- not quite right and lacklustre about this effort.

Still, maybe next time? We shall see...