Weight 1994 Album

Rollins Band

After the relative jam-fest that was the previous disc, enter Melvin Gibbs on bass, and a moderate change in musical direction for the Rollins Band. Weight runs approximately 20 minutes shorter than the previous disc, and even hit sort of a commercial peak thanks to “Liar”, which over the years has become a signature song for Henry, like it or not. I’m still not a head-over-heels convert because for a sizeable majority of this CD, Henry’s antics still annoy greatly, and there are other problems which crop up here and there that I cannot ignore. Let’s get the boogeyman out of the way first. “Liar” is a decent track and I think it works despite Rollins’ antics. Henry’s performance overall has its’ pros and cons – he’s good at conning you, but the monotone screaming and growling when he reveals himself is something that really gets on my nerves. Meanwhile, the band’s performance is quite credible although the guitar solo is a little too messy for my taste. Overall, it goes way better when accompanied with the video. The material is generally hard-to-take in a different way for me. For every nugget of wisdom – and there are some to be found here – it’s marred by Rollins and his overbearing nature. The production is definitely not as clean as it was for End of Silence, and the structure and riffs of the songs are gruffer and to the point – which I like – but upon subsequent listens, tracks start to merge together into a mass of faux-motivational miasma. The worst example has to be “Civilized” and “Step Back”, which feel like the exact same, cadences, and everything, just different lyrics. For every “Disconnect”, you get a “Tired”. Or a “Shine”, where it’s “HERO TIME”. I just cannot shake the notion that Henry was cribbing this stuff from some motivational handbook and passing it off as honest words. Overall, another weighted dud from the Rollins Band.