So musically speaking String Cheese Incident is indeed a jam band and the question is what do they sound like. Well when I think of bands like Widespread Panic or Phish, I tend to think of spacey or psychedelic atmospheres, funky grooves, and mostly long songs specifically crafted for the live setting. As this may be true of past String Cheese Incident releases, the ironic thing about One Step Closer is that it contains none of these aforementioned traits. Surprisingly the songs are all in the 4-minute range and we do not have any of that obstinate “jamming” one might expect. The music itself can be described as a mix of blues, jazz, bluegrass, folk and rock n’ roll. While this may sound like a cliché’ the truth is the band does indeed take a bit from all these styles to create one all their own. With this being the bands 5th studio effort (plus many live recordings), it is quite apparent that they are very comfortable with themselves and know who their audience is at this point. The end result is a mature, reflective set of songs, in the spirit of musicians such as Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, or even the Beatles.

As many of you may already hold a firm opinion of this genre in general, let alone this band, I would probably not recommend this as a starting point for familiarizing yourself with String Cheese Incident (if that happens to be your intention). It does tend to get a little boring and is probably nothing at all what you would hear if you were to go to one of their live shows. Undoubtedly though, One Step Closer is a well-executed album with solid musicianship. While this is certainly not for everybody, in the chance that you are looking to kick back and chill out with some mellow tunes you may want to give it a shot.

written by Joe Grammatico

Playing time: 53.18