7) Prism - Small Change

Prism's 4th album, Small Change? You ARE pandering! No, no, no one will notice we fired Ron and changed from wacky, synthy arena rock to tastefully synthy adult oriented softish rock, then just gave up altogether. I already told you that story, this is the actual crash. 

Luckily, i also told you it doesn't bother me a bit. I still like Prism, even this album. What i don't like is buttering me up. This is supposed to be what Sandra wants Bottle to review next, not what Sandra thinks Bottle might like to hear. What say you? 

Ha! You're wrong, Bottle. I can say with complete honesty that i put no thought into it whatsoever. I had Compy give me a list of stuff that you liked by surprise, and just happened to find some albums from those bands. But, i picked them for no reason other than they felt like i should pick them all together. I was worried i went overboard, but i think i won. 

Yep, you're right. You did. The face on your face says it all. I have no counter argument, except for one tiny little detail... 

Nope. 

You didn't let me finish. 

You were going to say pronouns. You switch them all the time, so i can too. 

Oh, ok, um, well...Aha! You were pacing 'cause you were making sure you didn't leave any unguarded openings. You, you, you, clever intelligent woman, you. Nice job. Everyone agree? Sandra won, Bottle zero? Case closed. On with the show. 

Yeah, people change, bands evolve, you shouldn't be stuck anywhere you don't want to be, but you also kind of have to make the best of it when it happens. Prism's been bankrupt since Armageddon (another beautiful coincidence, gold star), so of course they gotta go commercial pop rock, or just quit altogether without even trying. Prism tried it both ways. It's totally fine. How it fits into your story is still a mystery until we get through 'em all, but the logic train seems to be chugging right along, no bandits in sight. Don't think i ever argued Chad wasn't a jerk, did i? 

Actually, since we're doing it all out of order anyway, do you guys mind if i take a peek at the last two? Well, that was a resounding chorus of yeses. Ok fine we'll just stumble through the dark like always. 

We've morphed from the harder side of synthprog through pop to adult oriented softcore rock. If i didn't know any better i'd say this has the non-nutrative varnish of "growing up," not to be confused with the much more useful and healthy process of maturing. Maturing involves getting better and more refined, growing up is just a biological function. Grown ups are pretty fake and terrible, as we just heard. Maturity is a balanced state of mind without any particular age restrictions. I know which one i'd rather be, and it certainly isn't a grown up. There's always a hole in paradise. If i didn't know any better i'd say you picked this album as an attempt to see the story from Chad's point of view, but you said you were intentionally messing with the pronouns. It just so happens i do know better. If both sides of an irreconcilable binary opposition feel exactly the same, then one of you is delusional. Quick check to earlier in this review, yep Sandra won and Chad was the jerk. She's learning to pout from a magazine, but we're listening to it from the knowledge that he's just as brainwashed to believe he isn't a fully participating part of that problem. This is Chad being a codependent, self-aggrandizing vampire. Please Henry, can you and Bryan Adams write us some commercial radio hits? Take whatever part of our souls you need, we couldn't turn a profit from them. Normally, i'd serve up my world famous rat poison rangoon, but something tells me a little bit of suffering through the thunderstorm alone is exactly what Chad needs to mature a little bit. 

I'm guessing we'll get one more ironic nail in the love coffin and then go completely non-sequiter in a logically conclusive way. But first, one final thought. How dare the assistant engineer be nicknamed "Beef."  That's my gimmick.

Part 8