As many of you may or may not have heard, former lead singer of God Lives Underwater and what would have been future solo artist David Reilly has passed away from stomach complications. A sad and tragic fate for a great performer. He will be sorely missed.
In the interim, the final album from God Lives Underwater does not come close to matching EMPTY and their self-titled debut, both of which had more of the hard-charging techno-rock embrace that domintated GLU's early material. LIFE IN THE SO CALLED SPACE AGE was flawed, but still strong and leaned more towards the techno edge. UP OFF THE FLOOR is the album that tries to return GLU to the hard rock/techno mix that EMPTY succeeded...they come up somewhat short. First off, the sound is kind of muddled on a few songs, although "White Noise" and "1%" are very good, strong rock songs and come as close to the rock of EMPTY as you're likely to hear. Secondly, they had originally planned 12 tracks and the two left off were good tracks, and the 10 we are left with are mostly good, but undermined by the flawed mastering job. It's ashame that the album turned out this way, because it could have been so much more than it is...a solid rock/techno album with a strong collection of songs, but a flawed sound.
UP OFF THE FLOOR is probably the weakest GLU album, but it still has its share of good moments and it's memorable enough to make it an essential to any hardcore GLU fan's collection. But sadly, it is not the masterpiece that it could have been had more time been put into the mastering and, some, the music. Listen if you want to hear the last notes of GLU. (May you rest in peace, David Reilly)