Review: VAST, Nude

The majority of people who have bought a VAST CD probably bought their 1998 release, Visual Audio Sensory Theater. They were probably seduced into the purchase after hearing either the deliciously vicious “Pretty When You Cry” or the complex and beautiful “Touched” at the local Goth bar. Those people probably thought it was a pretty decent album—sort of what they would expect to hear if Enigma, Nine Inch Nails, and U2 found themselves in a big, sonic mash up.

Those people probably then went out and bought the second release from Jon Crosby’s band, Music for People. A better CD, in some ways, if a bit of a mirror of the first. The driving beats, the mix of rock and classical instruments, the touch of vaguely Middle Eastern sounding vocals buried under the melodies, and Crosby’s self-consciously disturbing lyrics all seemed tailor made for an I Wanna be a Goth starter kit. Ultimately, there was something distinctly promising about the release—a sense that Crosby was onto something pretty cool, even if it did come across as affected at times.

And now, after four years, VAST has a new album, Nude.

And suddenly, anyone who has stuck with hopes that Crosby was a kind of melodic Trent Reznor before Trent went and got boring, was struck with a singular thought: VAST isn’t going anywhere. They still sound like that Enigma-Nine Inch Nails-U2 mash up, still have the dark and poetic lyrics, still have all the same rhythms and melodies, and still have Jon Crosby making the same noises as before.

VAST has found a template and Crosby is damned if he’ll stray far from the lines that he’s written for himself. The production sounds interchangeable with the previous albums, the songs could easily be slotted in without drawing attention to themselves, and the lyrics are, in the end, un-involving. In a way, it’s good music—clean and pretty and easily danceable. But it doesn’t show any kind of growth at all for the artist.

The CD isn’t bad, just tremendously unnecessary. The best advice for someone who has already bought the first two CD’s is to pop one of them in and forget about buying Nude. The best advice for someone who hasn’t bought any VAST CD’s yet is to buy the first two, and ignore this one. It might have its atmospheric and pretty moments, but Nude is the sound of an artist treading water.

Disappointing.

Cross posted to BlogCritics.