The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Chevelle

[#] Wonder What's Next (2002)

An evening with el Chevelle.

Reviewed February 24, 2022

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read my first impressions, or read on for how they might have changed.)

Distilling years of Pantera and Deftones riffs into their own ebony blend of accessible drop B misery, Chevelle's major-label debut is as roaring and moody as it is catchy and groovy. Chevelle recognize the power of meaty chords—see the way they turn a steamroller riff eerily weightless on "Comfortable Liar" or the endless, frustrated churn of the title track, lyrically and musically. With a dynamic singer like Pete Loeffler just as comfortable singing emotively as he is aggressively growling and climactically wailing, it's no surprise three of this album's eleven tracks became 2000s radio rock staples and the main stage of Ozzfest wasn't far behind.

Wonder What's Next is a superb example of what happens when a great band gets fine production behind them. While purists will blanch at some of the glossy Pro Tools textures baked into these songs, they do a lot of enhance Chevelle's cinematic tendencies, as the band perfectly controls the release of the titular fury on "The Red" or goes from simmer to rolling boil on the lonely, disturbed "Don't Fake This". Wonder What's Next is a masterclass in accessible alt-metal, sounding polished while upping Chevelle's punching power, and while it's not a no-skip album, it is tremendously satisfying.

Essential:	"Comfortable Liar", "Send the Pain Below", "Closure"
Quintessential:	"The Red"
Non-Essential:	"Grab Thy Hand"
Rating:
Further listening:	Wonder What's Next's Rediscovering entry