We Love You All

Occasionally, one comes across an album that is slightly uneven and sometimes misses the mark but still deserves a lot of credit for its originality and its sense of adventure; We Love You All is such an album. The French alternative metal/math metal band Psykup have been around since 1995, and one thing the band has never been called is generic. Psykup may not be everyone's cup of tea, but even those who don't appreciate what they do cannot accuse them of being a faceless, unoriginal, cookie-cutter type of band. So what exactly is it that Psykup do? It is probably best to describe We Love You All as an unlikely mixture of Primus, Strapping Young Lad, Mr. Bungle, Carcass, Nirvana, and Jane's Addiction; those bands aren't their only influences, but they are some of Psykup's main influences. While this 2008 release is much heavier and much harsher than Primus, Psykup do have some of Primus' angularity, eccentricity, and abstract funkiness; We Love You All is definitely on the abstract side, and Psykup provide complex, difficult, angular songs that have a lot of twists and turns and are not easy to absorb. Clearly, We Love You All is the type of left-of-center album that must be accepted on its own stubborn, unyielding terms, but those who aren't afraid of the abstract and the cerebral will appreciate Psykup's sense of adventure — even if they do find the album to be mildly uneven. However, We Love You All has more ups than downs, and this 54-minute CD effort is worth hearing if one is daring enough to go along for the ride.