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Man On Earth would sound much better in space

The sophomore effort from Man On Earth is entitled The Time Spent Wondering. Quite honestly, I spent the time wondering what anyone would see in the band. Granted, Polaris’ guitar playing, for the most part, sounds heavily influenced by The Edge (U2). But if I want to hear guitar parts akin to that style, then I would listen to U2 so I could hear a vocalist who does more with his voice than N8 does on this disc. It’s not that the guy can’t vocalize well. “Come In Closer,” which has an euphoric Velvet Underground feel, reveals that N8 can expand beyond the one-and-a-half octave range that he utilizes throughout the majority of the disc. The same can be said for “A Birthday Song,” a very acoustic piece that shows some vocal range.

The first single, “All We Want,” is where the limited vocals are the most obvious out of all the tracks on the 10 song disc (or 12 if you count the 2 bonus tracks). His voice is very unimaginative and actually flat in a few places throughout the song. Despite these flaws, The Time Spent Wondering debuted at #8 on smartpunk.com in the online advance release of the single.

The album has guest artists on it, including keyboardist Dr. Fink (Prince & the Revolution) and vocalist Stephen Pearcy (RATT). The keyboards help fill out some texture in the very basic songs. I’d really dislike this disc if the keys weren’t on the album. I can’t seem to find any info on which song(s) Pearcy contributed his voice to. The advance copy of the disc has no liner notes and after some lengthy research on Pearcy’s site and Man On Earth’s site, as well as the record label’s site, nothing is readily available.

I will say that the first bonus track, “So You’re the Genius Behind This?” actually shakes things up a little on the disc. It sounds like Jimi Hendrix took his wah-wah pedal and began jamming to John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Rain on the Scarecrow” and Yes’ Steve Howe made a guest appearance on one of the guitar parts (I’d be curious to see Polaris play the riffs I’m talking about to see if it is actually him or a guest musician). The vocals bounce around from smooth and pleasant to some dark, dirty vocals from a Punk album. Too bad it takes so long into the album to finally mix things up. It’s also too bad that there aren’t some more songs on here with a little more variety.

The final bonus track is a more electro-dance mix version of “Something Better” from the same album.

You can hear many of the songs at the band’s MySpace site. So if you think I’m way off base with my review or aren’t sure, feel free to visit their site and hear for yourself. You may dig the disc. I think it makes a groovy little coaster to set my drink on.

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