Platinum

Description

Platinum is the sole full-length album by American alternative pop/rock band Zilch, released on Gotee Records in 1997, manufactured and distributed by Word Entertainment. The album was recorded by Russ Long at The White House in Nashville, Tennessee; and was produced by The Gotee Bros. (Joey Elwood, Toby “tobyMac” McKeehan, and Todd Collins) with the band co-producing. Mixed by F. Reid Shippen at The Border in Franklin, Tennessee.

You probably know by now that Zilch is three-fourths of dc Talk‘s spirited touring band. What you didn’t know ’til now is that ‘Platinum’ is about as far from ‘Jesus Freak‘ as could be expected from musicians who toured all over the world with three guys named Toby, Mike and Kevin.

This debut is as musically loose, quirky and experimental as ‘Jesus Freak’ was groomed for pop paradise. ‘Platinum’ is fun and lighthearted. Everything about it says, “Hey, let’s really throw in the kitchen sink on this track!” That’s because in addition to the expected assault of Otto “SugarBear” Price’s bass, Jason Halbert’s keyboards and Mark Townsend’s guitars are scads of sound effects, snatches of odd conversation, false starts, a lengthy Monty Python-esque song “disclaimer,” and horns o’ plenty. Zilch even throws in a punked-out cover of «My Hero Zero» from School House Rock fame. (Okay, make that an industrial-size kitchen sink.)

But the best thing about Platinum is that while it certainly feels like the epitome of devil-may-care, the often carnival-like canvas created by Zilch’s musical brush and palette is expertly (dare I say, purposely) contrasted with lyrics that would make the most jaded of listeners sit up and take notice.

In «Christiana», Zilch points a finger in the mirror: “Man he asked me for some change/ This is the last thing I need today/ Girl next door falls down the stairs/ We don’t get involved, we just say our prayers.” And on «Yeah!» the band doesn’t let the listener off easy, either: “Honestly do you get the feeling that/ Those that you meet/ Believe you know the way.”

For rock-solid lyrics with fun, unpredictable accompaniment, Zilch is the way to go. [Dave Urbanski, CCM, October 1997]

On first impressions you’re met with a good sound and with these guys being DC Talk’s backing band you’d expect nothing else. The sound is catchy with good guitar riffs and a toe tapping beat. Production-wise they have an excellent sound – fluid and well practised. Guitars, drums and the odd trombone thrown into the first track, «God Is Good», wavers on ska but doesn’t commit to it, merely borrows the bounciness of it. Vocally they are clear and concise, you can hear what they say and so lyric-wise you can hear the message they are trying to get across, but that isn’t so apparent. Put The Beatles, Nirvana and the Lightning Seeds in a room, remove Lennon, McCartney and Cobaine then you have the sound but not neither the experience or natural flow of the music. As an album goes it does actually hold its own although the album does have lots of Hollywood special effects thrown in. Adding to the impact but not the plot. To sum up Zilch, they are good musically and show promise. If they were to have spent more time concentrating on lyrics rather than nice guitar riffs this would have been an exceptional debut album. [Angie Hill, Cross Rhythms, February 1998]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/platinum/1533118424)

CD tracklist:

01. Ladies and Gentleman – 0:47
02. Good – 3:16
03. Everything – 2:56
04. Here We Go – 3:56
05. Yeah – 2:41
06. What I Got – 3:06
07. Hero Zero – 3:18
08. A Brief Note to the General Public – 1:50
09. In the Sky – 3:23
10. Christiana – 3:32
11. Into Heaven – 3:28
12. Bap! – 5:24
13. Surfer Psalm – 8:12

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Gotee Records

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