Album review: Upchuck – “Bite the Hand that Feeds”

Famous Class Records – 13 Oct 2023

A good album marred by two problems, both self-inflicted

Typically when I do reviews I tend to sing the praises before moving onto (what is hopefully perceived as) constructive criticism. However, when listening to Upchuck‘s new LP Bite the Hand that Feeds, I kept finding it more and more difficult to do that because there is one, very glaring problem that, unfortunately for me (your mileage may vary) had a detrimental effect on the whole experience.

On my first listen-through, somewhere around track 10 or 11, I jotted down the note “too long, trim 3.” I felt that the LP was beginning to drag on me, even while I was enjoying the songs, and that maybe they could’ve excised two or three of the tracks to make it a bit leaner and focused. When I got home and checked the total run-time though, I saw it weights in at just under 33 minutes. How could a 33 minute LP seem too long? Even at 13 songs, that feels about right, right? So I looked deeper into my experience, and my notes, to try to find the “why” in why I felt this way

And then I found it: a single comment jotted into the corner of my notebook: “over-use of fuzzed out growly guitar.” Thinking on this note, I began to put it all together.

I understand that this fuzzy, lo-fi aesthetic is part of the sound. Sure, but it’s overuse or, maybe, turning that dial past 11 on just about every track, caused the entirety of this album to begin to blur together. Think of the drums on Primus‘ The Brown Album, where an exceptional performance is lost in the (intentional) muddiness of the recording and production. It just reduced the complete listening experience. That’s what I think happened here.

As with that analogy, it’s not that I don’t think the performance is good, just that it gets lost in the effect. On the next listen-though I tried something new, where I waited about an hour between listening to each individual track. Sure enough, in these small doses, the songs were much more enjoyable. It just seems like the constant onslaught of that guitar sound weighs like an albatross around the neck of the LP as a whole.

Remember how I said there were two problems? Well, the second ain’t so bad, but it does have an effect on the entirety. That problem is “Crashing.” Despite how good the other songs are (individually, mind you), “Crashing” is simply a phenomenal track and, if I’m being honest, a contender for song of the year. For good or ill, it is far and away from all of the other songs on the LP.

What makes it so good? Well, vocalist KT brings so much to the table with their delivery on most of the songs (one or two others gets the lead vocal treatment from other persons, one of the highlights of the album that helps to add some nice variety). On “Crashing,” though, everyone brings their A-game into a composition that is sooo stupidly catchy it will be in your head for days if not weeks. I heard the song before I saw the video, and boy oh boy, is that video just the icing on the cake that make this one track such a stellar experience. I just love it all so much.

Two other stand-outs are the back-to-back tracks of Spanish language “Hierba Mala” (“Bad Weed”) and “NYAG.” The former features guest vocalist Chris (just listed as “Chris”) and is a fun and poppy number. While the latter has guitarist Mikey on vocals, with a nice boppy tempo and some fun interplay between the guitars.

Overall, I can’t not like this album, but I just found it easier in the long run to listen to small bits at a time. What that says about the decision-progress in putting together a cohesive album, I don’t know. I do know this probably runs true for a lot of bands, but I have the impression from this and previous releases, that Upchuck are quite the live experience. I hope one day to be able to experience that.

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