"SHELL IS SWELL" by SHELL! (Marianne Nowottny & Donna Bailey) Shell is Swell? uh... more like Shell is ass kickin' awesome. I have been listening to the disc for awhile now and I really really like the whole thing. I think it's a strong piece of work. It's very eclectic and that's something I always enjoy. The structure of the album, the order of the songs are important, and they did a great job with that. As soon as "Guillotine" kicks in, you can tell that the album is gonna be big, in the sense that eclectic and more electronic and expansive. Everything from "In My Blood" to "Marz's Birthday" is really cool, and then you got "Ashes to Dust" which is simply the perfect song to lead into "The Prey", and then "The Blink". It reminds me of the middle of Abbey Road where you've got this menacing "She's So Heavy" and then it goes into "Here Comes The Sun" and I always go "aahhhhh." "The Blink" has that same sort of soothing effect. "Mausoleum" is totally cool, way better than the original. One of my favorites is "Perfectly Good Sugar." Hmmm. I was pretty sure that I had accidentally ingested some LSD or something while I was listening to "My Maze". Whoa! hello, post production! I like it a lot though, it's so interesting to listen to all the mayhem. Then there's the familiar "Another Day" which is like another "She's So Heavy"-"Here Comes The Sun" deal, and to close it off, "Shell Theme Song" which may actually be my favorite track. Don't ask me why, but from the moment I heard it, and every time after that, I have this bizarre vision of that song being the soundtrack to the end of a movie in which the members of "Shell" are running a marathon race. The sun is going down, and they are approaching the finish line, neck and neck, as the crowd cheers them on, and there is the Shell theme. Like I said, don't ask. "Shell! Is Swell!" is a wonderful, well rounded album with a ton of awesome songs. What can I say besides I love it! Paul "Is Dead" Brooks