Anchor Drops (CD)

While the early 2000s saw the jam-band community take a bit of a hit in terms of popularity and credibility, keeping the torch lit for the hacky-sack set lamenting the passing of Phish was Bloomington, Indiana's Umphrey's McGee. Inspired as much by prog rock as by the trippy country-rock noodlings of the Grateful Dead, the band built a substantial and loyal following based on a dazzling live show; in fact, three of the band's first five albums were live recordings. Umphrey's McGee has also proven to be a popular staple of the Bonaroo Music and Arts Festival since the venue's inception in 2002.

• Category:  Music  »  Rock & Pop  »  General Rock & Pop
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: July 25, 2005
• Label: Sci Fidelity Records
• UPC: 662102101728
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106484938
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #51240 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #16381 in Rock & Pop (See Top 100 Rock & Pop Bestsellers)
• #10433 in General Rock & Pop (See Top 100 General Rock & Pop Bestsellers)

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Personnel: Brendan Bayliss (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synthesizer); Jake Cinninger (vocals, electric guitar, classical guitar, resonator guitar); Joel Cummins (vocals, piano, organ, synthesizer, background vocals); Elliott Peck (vocals); Karl Denson (saxophone); Andy Farag (Fender Rhodes piano, congas, bongos, castanets, claves, cowbells, shaker, tambourine, timbales, drum programming).

Recording information: Gravity STudios, Chicago, IL (08/11/2003-01/??/2004); Magnetic Field, Chicago, IL (08/11/2003-01/??/2004); Pines Studio, Champaign, IL (08/11/2003-01/??/2004).

Unknown Contributor Role: Joel Cummins.

With the release of Anchor Drops, Umphrey's McGee has made only two studio albums to go with its four live albums, an appropriate balance for a band more comfortable jamming on-stage than writing songs and trying to come up with definitive performances of them in the studio. Necessarily, a studio collection focuses more on the songs as compositions consisting of lyrics (usually) and melodies, rather than on flashy playing before paying customers. Boasting 14 tracks, only a couple of which run over five minutes, Anchor Drops demonstrates that Umphrey's McGee remains a collection of riffmeisters who haven't quite figured out how to make music that is as involving as it is admirable. The players remain formidable instrumentalists who like to construct tracks from interesting bits they've stumbled upon while jamming, instead of actually composing within a structure; the songs tend to consist of sections of involved playing and furious rhythms that stop and start and change on a dime. Most of them have lyrics wanly sung by lyricist and guitarist Brendan Bayliss, but few of those words convey much meaning beyond occasional attempts at self-deprecating humor. Having gotten them out of the way, the band quickly roars on to another blistering climax that sounds borrowed from a late Frank Zappa record. The only exceptions are a couple of acoustic excursions, "Bullhead City," which finds Bayliss' wife, Elliott Peck, harmonizing with lead guitarist Jake Cinninger, and the closing instrumental, "The Pequod," a delicate fingerpicking exercise by Cinninger. No doubt the rest of the selections will come off better at Umphrey's McGee's concerts, where the sheer technique required to play such complicated pieces will win well-earned applause. ~ William Ruhlmann

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