This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Rock Rule No. 1: When a successful band starts talking about how much they’ve “matured as songwriters” and “evolved as musicians” on their new record, what they really mean is, “We’ve written a bunch of songs that don’t rock and have no hooks.”
Case in point: Mercedes Five And Dime, Moist’s moody, soulful third outing. These 13 tracks all but abandon the crunching rock of Silver and Creature for introspective, acoustic guitar-based and electronica-tinged tunesmithery that seems designed to show Moist aren’t just pretty-boy popsters. Who knows, maybe it’ll work. But I am more inclinded to bet Moist’s next disc follows Rock Rule No. 2: After a successful rock band puts out a self-indulgent album that stiffs, they start talking about wanting to “get back to their roots,” which really means, “The record company refused to put out this album unless we wrote some songs that rock and have hooks.”
