This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Former Moist singer David Usher continues his quest to outrun his post-grunge past with his third solo album.
Which, on its own, is just fine and dandy — after all, there are few things less enjoyable than watching a middle-aged rocker who doesn’t know when to stop screaming and settle down. Thing is, it’s hard to understand why Usher has to swing the pendulum so far in the opposite direction. The self-indulgent Hallucinations is as ethereal, insubstantial and delusional as its title suggest. Musically, these pretentious post-grad pop-rockers are often pointlessly overblown, loaded down with strummy guitars and lush orchestrations and jazzy licks and swooping synths and scritchy electronic textures and knob-twiddling production flourishes that fail to mask the lack of hooks or choruses strong enough to stick in your memory. Top them off with Usher’s ponderously serious lyrics (“And tell me, do you feel like dying?”) and eye-rolling vocal delivery — especially his unfortunate swoops into falsettoland — and you have to wonder if this guy is for real.
