3 - 'Revisions'

Melodic prog rockers 3 return with their third album for Metal Blade (and sixth overall) by spiffing up rare past material with a new polish.

3 has won over more of Metal Blade’s extreme sect than you might realize, which is why they’re back with their third enterprise for the label, one which sees the band leafing through past endeavors (released and unreleased) and daringly soaking them in the ebb of an eighties-based pop ocean, Revisions.

This album of rebooted songs (garnished from 3’s early cassette releases and bootlegs) is established on the pleasant breeze of “Anyone Human” while staying strident on the subsequent “Rabid Animals.” Both cuts have the resilience to sound like highway-bound Rick Springfield tracks with deeper extraction. “Rabid Animals” does dip into a slow and shadowy breakdown, giving pause to its lap-patting rhythm and salty sway.

Ditto for “The Better Half of Me” which is one of 3’s guiltier lost-in-the-eighties moments, accented by a lofty parachuting melody one could attribute from anyone to Springfield to later-era Blue Oyster Cult to Haircut 100.

It’s the translucent bob of “Automobile” where 3 throws Revisions for a slight curve, though there’s no deviating from their commitment to creating effervescent and neatly-cut pop rock for these redux tunes. A tasty guitar solo from Joey Eppard interchanges “Automobile” just a tad while wrapping with an uplifting pop chorus and an angelic vocal sweep during the outro.

The name of the game to Revisions is simplicity through flashbacked pop grooves. Though deeply textured, 3 have opted to tailor this old-is-new project with less flash and extension, albeit you can’t discount the dexterity of their snazzy 2:45 jam instrumental “Lexicon of Extremism” which could’ve been inspired by The Police, only with an upped tempo and zippy finger plucking akin to Yes.

“Why” is absolutely gorgeous with its focused harmony, while “Fable” is perhaps the closest 3 gets to more recent outings like Wake Pig and The End is Begun, though it maintains the determined resolve to stay tunefully fluid while sculpting details in the final stanza.

Even the abbreviated “Halloween” can’t resist shaking more sugar into its flavorsome candy corn, getting perilously close to an overly-sweet Jonas Brothers Nickelodeon holiday special, yet 3 are such experts in craft they keep enough rock and subliminal spookiness to pull it off without offense.

How about that Smiths alt-rock swish of “The Game” wrapping this gutsy album up with an anti-pop finale to an album establishing itself as salutary throwback pop?

Already the accusations are being flung at 3 of trying to softsoap their one-time affinity for Tool into a bid for mainstream acceptance. Sorry, but what 3 is attempting is hardly fashionable, since they’re simply cleaning closets and blowing dust away to older tunes they want heard by their public. If 3 were looking to crash today’s FM radio, they’d need to drop trousers past their cracks and scat trendy sex rap overtop cardboard loops and samples in order to make a dent. Would 3 stoop so low? Stranger things have happened, but doubtful.