Finally, after years of avant garde screeching and squealing, Mike Patton has returned to using that amazing voice of his for actual singing. Mind you, I’m not one of those unrealistic fans that ineffectually demands things that are clearly never going to happen — Faith No More is long gone, and I’m pretty sure Mr. Bungle is too — but I’d at least like to hear the man sing if he’s going to continue releasing CDs.
I’m hesitant to even call what he’s done in the last 5-10 years “music.” His various solo projects and his work with the band Fantomas have been little more than extended noise-making sessions. And I don’t say this like an aging out-of-the-looper would call modern music “noise.” I mean that there are literally no lyrics, verses, choruses or really any notes being played in a manner that’s anything but disturbing. I’m no musicologist (is anybody? Is that even a word?), but I’m pretty sure there are no melodies or harmonies either. Patton treats his voice as just another instrument through most of these experiments, eschewing the need for coherent words of any kind for… well, as I said, screeching and squealing. It’s been a hard period to endure for those of us who, damn it, know he can do better. Thankfully, the wait is over.
Patton has described Peeping Tom as the type of pop music he’d like to hear when he turns on the radio. As he doesn’t apparently listen to modern pop music, this might present a problem. Except that I don’t either, so I really don’t know any better. And as a result, I rather like what I hear. For guys like me — lost on the island that music forgot — it’s utterly perfect.
Sure, my man-crush on Mike Patton probably helps me appreciate this admittedly disjointed collection of songs, but even when I try to look at it objectively, I can’t deny that there’s some pretty solid material here. Each track is a collaboration (none, I should note, with anybody I’ve actually heard of, but that doesn’t really mean anything), so we get a pretty broad range of sound, from hip-hop to sultry female-voiced jazz. Followers of Patton’s more mainstream efforts should have no trouble jumping from one damn thing to the next in this fashion. The rest of you should learn to accept and embrace it, because the man is absolutely right: this is how pop music should be.
I hate to write such a vague review, but I’m really at a loss to describe it in more specific terms. It’s well-written, somewhat complex without being especially deep, and catchy. In short, it’s what I’ve been waiting for since FNM’s 1998 Album of the Year and Mr. Bungle’s 1999 California. It’s clearly neither of those bands, but then, it’s not the late nineties anymore, no matter how much I wish it were. Patton says there’s more Peeping Tom on the way. I look forward to it.