Album Review: Michael Grant & The Assassins - Always A Villain

I walk into this album confused. I understand a 'star' branding his music as "____ & ____", separating himself from his backing band. I also understand artists who are talented and controlling enough to want to play every instrument on what is truly a 'solo record'. What I don't understand is Michael Grant, who has combined both of these things. "Always The Villain" is a solo record where he plays every instrument, yet it is credited to a band. It leaves me asking questions. Is there actually a band called The Assassins he has locked up somewhere? Is he such an egotist he considers himself as important as an entire band? Is he just afraid of putting this out under his own name, in case it fails, so he can blame the non-existent band when he reinvents himself yet again? I'm scratching my head.

Considering that Grant spent several years as a guitarist in LA Guns, that should tell you what this record is going to sound like. I've listened to that band's recent releases, which were some of the worst rock music of these last couple years. LA Guns plays stripped-down rock without any hooks or melodies, and their ear for production is completely shot, so the records also sound dreadful from a production standpoint. Most of that is also true of this record, though not quite as bad.

The record is a bit muddy, with the guitars sounding especially brittle. There's no brightness or sharpness to the sound, and it doesn't sound particularly heavy either. That's not a great starting point, but then the songs give us little more to enjoy. Grant's vocals drone on over some generic sleaze guitars, where none of these songs have anything approaching a hook. I don't want to sound harsh, but they sound like the songs written by a guitar player. Trust me, there's an insult in there.

Even the better material on the record is merely adequate. It's a record that doesn't reach very deep into Grant's artistic soul, and it sounds like it could have used someone else's ears to push him towards something more than this. It's not terrible by any means, but it's all faceless rock you can hear in any bar in any small town. Other than his connection to LA Guns, I don't hear what about this record would deserve any attention. Being better at this than LA Guns isn't anything to hang your hat on. That bar is pretty damn low.

Really, there isn't much else to say about this record. It's incredibly generic rock that doesn't try to do anything new, or even anything great. It's happy being decidedly average, so if that's what you want, go ahead and listen to it. Myself, I have better things to do.