Album Review: Mr Big - Ten

The world is an odd place. Mr Big is releasing this album as a piece of their retirement, which has involved a world tour playing to fans who have been with them for over thirty years. On this side of the ocean, though, you would probably run into a majority who thought Mr Big retired decades ago. To have a strong fan-base around the world, and yet be a complete afterthought in your home market, is a fascinating turn of events. The 'big in Japan' thing started with Cheap Trick, but it applies here as well.

This album being their last negates the need to say anything, but this music explains the arc of their career. Mr Big are enormous talents, but they struggle with the most basic piece of being a successful band. I don't think it's a surprise at all that their two biggest songs are an acoustic ballad and a cover, since those forced them to leave their skills at the altar of songwriting.

I've heard all the albums Mr Big has put out since reforming, and there is one consistency to them; they aren't great songwriters. There will be a great song here and there, like "Undertow" was when it led off that album, but by and large the band gets sucked down into blues rock excess. That is what this album offers up in spades. Song after song lives in the swamp, with the compositions hanging on the basic framework, and offering almost nothing in the way of a strong vocal melody.

There are certain melodic and rhythmic cliches that come with the blues, and they are all over this record. Perhaps they are doing this to come full-circle and show off their roots, but it doesn't feel at all like it belongs in this time. This is a record trying to be an early 70s record, but it wouldn't be a particularly good one even for that time period.

What bothers me most is that by saying I don't like this record much, it makes me an asshole, because the record is a tribute to drummer Pat Torpey. Heckling a eulogy is bad taste, but when you make it public...

Basically, this album makes a perfect case for when people ask why Mr Big never made it bigger in The US. I'm sorry to say, but they weren't on the same level as songwriters as most of the bands that made it to the top of the mountain. All these years later, they have their moments, but little has ever convinced me they could write another song as good as "To Be With You".