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Redundancy revisited
Another holiday album attains mediocrity
Mannheim Steamroller
"Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas Live”
American Gramaphone
Grade: D
Steam roll er \stumuk-ake\ n
: heavy, slow-moving vehicle with
a roller, used to flatten new roads
Spending a Christmas with
Mannheim Steamroller is like
spending it with your relatives.
They are unavoidable at this
time of year, they have nothing
you want to hear, and their
Christmas “offerings” are gener
ally new variations on the same
redundant, boring and unoriginal
gifts you received last year.
And now, along with the
October celebration of horror,
havoc and evil, comes the newest
release by Mannheim
Steamroller, the “band’s” fourth
album of synthesized Christmas
carols, painfully screamed as they
are stretched across a medieval
music rack.
A lot has changed since the
’80s - the era that spawned yup
pie trash such as Steamroller -
out tne group nasn t ouagea an
inch.
For 13 years now, Omaha’s
favorite musical conveyer belt has
been churning out the same regur
gitated mass of “Fresh Aire”
(mostly a mixture of pure helium
and hydrogen isotopes) and elec
trically blended omelets of
beloved centuries-old Christmas
music.
Despite the group’s obvious
failings, each of its four
Christmas albums has a distinct
sound and unique personality.
The first Mannheim
Steamroller Christmas album was
titled “Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas,” an obscure reference
to the content of the album.
With the two in between, “A
Fresh Aire Christmas” and
“Christmas in the Aire,”
Steamroller finally has stopped
inhaling and brought its music
back to the public - sure,
^==^— ———
Fleetwood did it first, but Omaha
has always been a few years
behind the coasts.
Mannheim Steamroller’s latest
edition to the Christmas sacrifice
series, “Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas Live,” doesn’t offer a
lot of new music for avid
Steamrollers.
By my count, at least eight of
the 16 tracks have appeared on
previous Steamroller Christmas
albums, which is nothing unusual
for a live disc, but these songs
have been repeated on more than
one album. And some albums
repeat tracks just by themselves.
Which begs the question: Was
this collection really necessary?
No.‘
First of all, because it’s anoth
er Mannheim Steamroller album.
Second, because it’s another
Mannheim Steamroller Christmas
album.
Sure, skinheads beat the hell
out of punk, and hippie rock just
can’t get the motivation to do
anything, but “new age” keyboard
bands (especially a group with
two of them) are fossils, as well.
Chip Davis, the frontman for
the group, boasts involvement
with the music industry sippe
childhood.
Born in the ’50s, he lives in
the ’80s, where his personal dis
covery of electronic music was
rapidly overshadowed by living
punch lines Europe, A Flock of
Seagulls and Herbie Hancock.
While these groups gracefully
faded into the pop culture psyche,
Davis persisted with the dream of
a synthesized soundscape.
UnfdrTuflateTf, the ndW ag^ls*3
thing of the past.
Of course, where better to live
in the past than the Nebraska
countryside?
With its new Christmas album,
Mannheim Steamroller once
again proves its self-fulfilling
prophesy of immobility, oppres
sive weight and omnipresent
annoyance. , .
-Bret Schulte
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