Disheveled Cuss

Nick Reinhart is a name you're gonna get used to seeing on here. He has contributed guitar wizardry in his band Tera Melos, and also as one half of the duo bygones. If I hadn't made it clear already, he's one of my biggest idols, so his name is gonna pop up time and time again. Disheveled Cuss is a new solo project of sorts he debuted last year with this self-titled album. Compared to his other projects, it's not all that flashy in the playing, adventurous in its sound play, or as rhythmically dense. Instead, Reinhart reigns it in and goes for a much more 90s alternative, power pop, indie rock direction. From what I've gathered, he is a huge fan of bands like Weezer, The Rentals, and The Smashing Pumpkins, who's influences can all be traced on this record. Every once in a while though, Reinhart will pop in with a quirky little guitar lick that instantly puts his stamp on it and makes it his own.

The best song on the record by far is She Don't Want which has the highest degree of that Reinhart guitar charm. The main section features some snappy chord changes, squawking harmonics, and these whammy barred punches that occasionally pop in unannounced. The chorus riff is a lot of fun as Reinhart plays these really nice runs of single notes between chords before ending the section with a climbing phrase that leads nicely back into the main section. While Oh My God can seem quite repetitive, the guitar riff on that track is also pretty fantastic. The song is lengthy, but worth sitting through for the awesome finale. We get a pretty angular guitar riff in an odd time signature; it's perhaps the closest you get on this record to anything remotely similar to Tera Melos territory.

The rest of the tracks are pretty modest and straight-forward in their writing. Some tracks are really good and some are just okay. Nu Complication is one of the really good ones. Really catchy, but chill tune. The elements of this track I really like are the rounded synth that has a bit of a 'wah' effect on it, and the post-chorus with these shouted crescendos that are followed by some gravelly spoken lines. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Don't Paint the Sun which is maybe the song I'm least impressed by. I do like the sludgy, Smashing Pumpkins sound the track has but really wish it was thicker, perhaps add one or two more layers of guitar to make a sound that is really enveloping. Tracks like this also reveal the record's achilles heel. Reinhart would probably be the first to tell you he isn't the most accomplished singer, but by trying to make very simple, straight-forward pop-rock songs, it kind of embellishes Reinhart's shortcomings as a vocalist. I don't feel this way on every track though.

If you ended up checking out that Tera Melos record I gave a stellar review to, and for some reason you didn't like it, then maybe give this one a shot. It's pretty fun, simple pop-rock songs with various 90s alternative flavours, elevated here and there with some of Reinhart's signature guitar moves that make him such a unique talent. I don't find it as exciting personally compared to some of his zanier projects, but I also appreciate Reinhart challenging himself to keep this one to the basics. It perhaps serves his audience with a road map to some of his musical heroes.