The Other Side

You could call The Dismemberment Plan boring. But you won't.

Comments (0) By Zac Crain Thursday, Feb 28 2002

Morrison insists Change has been somewhat misunderstood since its release in October of last year, that it's more of a bookend to Emergency & I than a reaction to it. He, rightly, points out the disc is "a distillation of a certain thing we've done all along," different in the fact that it's not a sequel but, instead, a new film by the same director. It's not necessarily a case of an old dog learning a new trick; more like that dog getting better at the tricks he already knows.

"Generally, people have this perception--which is fair, because of how the album flows--that it's a pretty somnolent record, in that the stuff doesn't have the usual mania that we've presented on previous records and onstage," Morrison explains. "But to be totally honest, these songs come across as a manic jumbo, just like the other ones, live. And they fit into the flow of, like, a high-energy rock show really well. So, yeah, people ask me that, and I think it's based on the idea that we made this really, super-inward and not roof-raising album. But the songs, in the context of other songs, they work fine as palate cleansers throughout the show, and certain songs, like 'Time Bomb' and 'Face of the Earth' and, to a certain extent, 'Ellen and Ben,' get their own fairly rowdy energy going. So, it's pretty much the same as before." He laughs. "We tried to change, tried to make things different--it's not different." He laughs again. "I mean, it's not that different, you know? It's not like we made a polka record or a ska record or something crazy like that. We just made a more chill, patient record that explored kind of what we could do through more craftsmanship."