Albatross isn't just the name of the new Big Wreck disk.

Let me first start off by saying I am totally biased here. I am a big fan of Big Wreck. They're pretty well the only band that kept me interested and hopeful about rock and roll thru the late '90s and the early '00s (my hope for the future was misplaced it turns out, but I didn't know that at the time). I liked both their big records, even tho everyone liked their first and no one really seemed to like their second.

Furthermore, I went to see them several times, including once in 1990somethin' and once last year on what I guess could be called their re-union tour. Both times, it was clear to me that there is one immutable fact I am sure of. Ian Thornley is a monster. Both as a vocalist, a lyricist, and a guitarist. If he was working in any other time in rock history, I shudder to think what he could do with an electric guitar. But he's working now, which means if he plays guitar too much, the record company won't want to have anything to do with him.

He has gotten in bed with Chad Kroeger too, and that's a pretty big problem for me. I have trouble trusting him to be an artist. I have trouble believing in his words and his notes the way I would like to. The way I do in the words and notes of Hendrix, Springsteen, Stevie Ray, Phil Lynott. I think Ian Thornley COULD be one of those guys, and Big Wreck COULD be one of those bands.

But with their latest release they have counted themselves out of that group. I'm not sure why they've done this, but I'm sure how.

Paulo Neta.

I know this sounds weird, but I notice these things. I notice when My Darkest Days, a band I ran into a few times in my other life as a Toronto rock musician, get a new guitarist. I notice when I walk into a showcase for another shitty band I don't like and see the same guest guitarist on stage. And I notice when I pay fairly good money to see Big Wreck reunited only to be presented with the same guy in THEIR lineup. And I notice when I open the cover of the cd I just bought and see that same fuckin' guest spot guy in the freakin' band!

I do not like this guy. And I think he has made it impossible for me to like Big Wreck's latest release. Never mind that the songs are at best only slightly promising. Never mind that the record is written, recorded and mixed so that only very little of Mr. Thornley's genius is allowed to peek out. Even if this was a truly goose-bump inducing record (which it is not), I would still have a big problem with Paulo Neta even bringing these guys coffee, much less playing in the band.

I'm sure he's a swell fella, okay? Before all 13 of you who read this review get on Facebook and say things like "I've met Paulo, he's a great guy and a great guitarist", I will tell you this: I don't know him as a person, and he could be mother goddam Teresa and I'd still feel the same way about him. I applaud him for having whatever skill it is that allows you to make a living as a musician these days. I applaud him because he is actually quite a good backing vocalist. But there is no way in hell he should be on a Big Wreck album.

Big Wreck is a band that can truly play and write all on their own. I think their previous releases speak for themselves in this respect. There is no reason for them to bring in a mercenary. There is no reason for them to bring in the guy that shit bands bring in to make them sound halfway decent on stage.

Correction. There is no ARTISTIC reason to do this.

There are dozens of OTHER reasons that all have to do with placating record companies, financiers, well connected people in the music biz. But those people are the necessary evil that I tolerate and buy the music IN SPITE OF. When I see a plug in Big Wreck, when I see the same guy in this band who was brought in as a crutch to make sure My Darkest Days could live up to their recording when they play important Toronto shows, I smell a rat.

Something's up here. It's like walking into your favorite steak house and seeing the local McDonalds manager in the kitchen. Even if the food still tastes great, you wonder what the hell is a burger flipper doing cooking my $30 steak.

This is how I feel about the fact that Paulo Neta is in this band. And it frankly ruins the musical experience for me. Because Big Wreck was a band that came into a very poor '90s rock scene and said "We'll have none of this weak-ass post-grunge garbage. We play guitars loud and banjos loud and we sing and if you don't like it, you can straight fuck off". And I really liked that about them. I like the same thing about Ian Thornley. He has SOUL, he has HEART, he has INSPIRATION! And yet the powers that be won't let him show it and worse, they'll saddle him with a replacement studio guitarist as a side man.

If you ask me, I think there's a reason this record is called Albatross. Paulo Neta is The Albatross around the neck of Big Wreck.